About Nothing
by Lavender Feline
Summary: Taichi comes back from college for a long weekend and Daisuke decides it's time to confess his feelings. If only Taichi wasn't so dense... Finished!
1. chapter 1

About Nothing

Chapter 1

Dedicated to and for Wind-chan, for being wonderful. ^_^

_Darkness. And... heat... so much heat. Another body... pressed close. Hands roaming over hot skin, pulling closer... whispering... teasing. A soft moan in the dark... gasping... wanting more... needing more. Moaning... a deep voice... begging... desperate moaning. More touching... petting... throbbing... yearning... stroking... needing more... thrusting. Oh, yes, thrusting. Harder... gasping... thrusting... moaning... thrusting... deeper... thrusting... thrusting... thrusting..._

Gasping for air, Taichi sat up in bed quickly. His apartment was cold with the night air. He'd forgotten to close his window again. Frost was covering the glass and he could see his breath in the air. Yet, he was drenched in sweat and overheating. 

"A dream," Taichi groaned, relaxing slightly. "Just that stupid dream again. That's all it was." The only light in the room was that of the streetlights outside and the soft glow of his laptop's monitor. He moved over to the window and basked in the cold air for a moment, letting his panting slow. "Stupid dream," Taichi mumbled, collapsing into a chair and turning to his computer. 

He stared blankly at the screen for a long moment, considering working on his term paper. Finally, he opened his email instead. 'I'll just see if I have any mail... then I'll do homework... maybe.' There was a long pause as Taichi considered one of the more interesting porn ads that spammed his email before he deleted it and moved on. "Spam, spam, more porn, spam..." he mumbled as he deleted the junk mail."Desire enhancers?! Pfft... I don't think I need those. ...Okay, no real email. Surprise, surprise."

Turning back to the porn ads for more distraction from his paper, Taichi jumped slightly when the phone rang. "No one I know would call me this late," he grumbled into the receiver.

"That's a lie and you know it." Yamato's voice sounded amused.

"Oh, Yamato! What're you doing calling me? Aren't you in France or something making millions while I'm stuck here working on term papers?"

"You told me to call you when I got back. ...I'm back."

"Your tour is over? Cool!" Taichi grinned, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet up on the desk. Yamato had been gone for three months on his first world tour with the Wolves, Taichi was glad to hear he was finally home.

"Yes, thank goodness. I'm exhausted." Yamato sighed heavily.

"That makes two of us," Taichi muttered. "I haven't been able to sleep in weeks. What are you complaining about, anyway? Being rich and famous too much work for ya?"

"Ha ha. It's very stressful traveling so much, you know. I'm overdue for a long rest. At least all you have to worry about is school." There was a pause. "Why haven't you been sleeping?" Yamato's tone sounded slightly concerned. They both knew that eating and sleeping were some of the few things Taichi was very good at. "I've never known you to miss sleep."

Taichi just laughed nervously. "...Y'know. I keep waking up. Dreams," he muttered. 

"Nightmares?"

"No... not really bad dreams."

"Oh~! Those sorts of dreams!" Yamato laughed, and then composed himself. "Does our little Taichi have a crush on someone?" he teased.

"Oh, shut up."

"Seriously, Taichi. Who are they about? Do you have a girlfriend you haven't told me about?"

"You know I'd have bragged to you right away if I did." Taichi shifted nervously in his seat. "I don't know who he is."

"He? This is getting interesting! Do tell more."

"There's nothing more to tell! It's probably some sort of weird reaction to working too much. I should stop studying so hard."

Yamato's smirk was practically audible. "I doubt that's the problem. Maybe you should study at all!"

"Keep talking like that and I'll give all the creepy fangirls at school where you live!" Taichi grumbled.

"Fine, fine. I'll come have lunch with you tomorrow. 12:30 at that horrible little burger joint you love?"

"Sounds good. Seeya tomorrow."

"Sweet dreams~!"

"Jerk." Taichi hung up the phone and yawned, slipping back into bed and hoping for a few hours of peaceful sleep.

***

"Sunlight should really be outlawed," Taichi grumbled as he trudged up to the restaurant where he was meeting Yamato. "It's too bright... and it burns."

"You didn't get any more sleep?" a voice asked from behind him. Taichi jumped slightly and spun around to see who it was.

"Yamato," Taichi sighed. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Sneak up on you? I've already said 'hello' five times." He gave Taichi a pout. "Aren't you glad to see me?"

Grinning, Taichi yanked his best friend into a tight hug. "Of course I am. Who else do I know who's rich enough to treat me to lunch?" 

Yamato rolled his eyes and shoved Taichi off, but grinned. "Are you still broke? Get a job, slacker." 

"Can't. No time, no time! I'm a busy man, y'know! I have classes, soccer, friends... too many things to keep up with! I have no time for a job."

"You're just lazy. Same old Taichi."

Yamato and Taichi headed into the restaurant and ordered their various greasy burgers, which Yamato paid for grudgingly. "You owe me."

"I don't owe you nothin'. Someday when I'm a rich and famous... well... whatever it is that makes me rich and famous... I'll treat YOU to burgers. For now, it's your job." Taichi grabbed the tray and led them to a booth, proceeding to inhale his food quickly.

"I still can't believe how much you're eating." Yamato wrinkled his nose and bit into his burger. "These things have enough calories in them to last you for months. You didn't need three of them."

"You come to appreciate the finer things in life when you're living off of ramen and beer." 

"If these are the finer things in your life, I have to worry about you, Taichi." Yamato paused before speaking again. "You look really tired."

"Yeah, 'cause I am. That's okay, though. I have some energy drinks at my apartment, I'll be fine."

"Maybe you're just stressed." Yamato brightened. "I'm going back to Odaiba tomorrow for a long weekend... going to see Takeru and all. Why don't you come with me? Your spring break starts in a few days so you won't miss much class, and you won't do much good going like this anyway."

"Don't have the money to take the train," Taichi mumbled, finishing off his last burger. "Expensive."

"I've got a car, Taichi." Yamato rolled his eyes. "No excuses. You need a break and your family will be glad to see you!"

Taichi sat back and sighed, sipping his soda. "Mom and dad are off on some second honeymoon thing. Hikari is staying with your brother. I don't think they really want us interrupting."

"You can stay with me. I've still got my room at Dad's place." Yamato poked Taichi's nose. "I insist you come with me!"

Taichi grinned and rolled his eyes. "Well, if you're absolutely sure you won't have any fun without me..."

"Oh, of course! We'd all be lost without the great Yagami Taichi."

"I guess I can't refuse, then." Taichi chuckled and nodded. "Sure. I'll go." 

***

"Yamato... come on, Yama-chan! Wakey, wakey!" Taichi teased, poking Yamato in the ribs repeatedly. They had just arrived safely in Odaiba, and the car was parked right outside their old high school. It was early afternoon and the sun was hot overhead, leaving no place for shadows. Taichi pulled his sunglasses off and yelled, "WAKE UP!"

Yamato sat up in a start. "Wha?!" He blinked slowly, and then relaxed. "Oh... we're here?"

"Yeah. Thanks so much for giving me the honor of driving the last half during rush hour, though. I hope you enjoyed your nap," Taichi said, annoyed. 

"Oh, you're welcome." Yamato grinned. "Why are we here?" He peered at the school, still disoriented from his sudden awakening.

Smirking, Taichi opened his car door and stepped out. "If I had to drive another minute I'd go insane. Anyway, it's about time for school to let out. I thought we could surprise Hikari and Takeru."

"Oh, there's still fifteen minutes before they get out of class. Let me sleep a bit more." Yamato lay back against the seat again and closed his eyes. "I'm very tired."

"And people say I'm lazy!" Taichi rolled his eyes, grinning. "I've gotta stretch my legs. I'll wake you when they get out." Yamato simply nodded, his eyes still closed, and Taichi shut the door and walked casually towards the school. 

It had been a year since Taichi had been to Odaiba, but it seemed like much longer than that. Wandering around the side of the building, he decided to check the field and see if the soccer club was practicing. It couldn't hurt to just watch, and his old teammates might be glad to see him. Taichi turned the corner and was glad to see the field dotted with bodies; he was just on time to catch the last few minutes of practice. Climbing the bleachers, he sat at the very top and stared down at the game. 

Completely oblivious to Taichi's presence, Motomiya Daisuke ran down the field, concentrating only on the practice game his class was playing. The sun was hot, he was sweating from the exertion, and he loved every minute of it. This was happiness! Nothing to think about but getting that ball. No worries, no stress, no tests... just that ball. He ran his hand through his hair, brushing it back slightly, watching for his chance. There! An opening! Daisuke ran forward quickly, kicking the ball away from the other team and taking control of it. This was what life was all about! This moment of adrenaline! He had the ball, everyone was chasing him, and he'd have only one chance to score. He neared the goal and sprinted forward quickly, barely taking a moment to aim before kicking the ball into the goal. 

"YES!!" Daisuke yelled, grinning hugely and posing. "I rock!" The rest of the class laughed and the coach blew the whistle, disbanding the class for the day. 

The class slowly broke apart, leaving the field. Daisuke, however, lingered. He grabbed the soccer ball and bounced it on his knee for a moment, enjoying the moment of quiet before heading into the noise of the locker room. He'd made the shot, he was happy with himself. Still, there were no more games coming up, and he'd be graduating soon. The thought of having no more soccer to play depressed him slightly, and the thought of leaving high school just made him nervous. Frowning, he booted the ball into the goal again carelessly. 

"That was a good shot," Taichi said, walking up behind Daisuke. He'd come down from the bleachers slowly, hoping to surprise the other boy. He wasn't disappointed. Daisuke jumped about three feet into the air before spinning around, eyes wide. "You might be good enough to take me on and have a chance!" Taichi said a huge grin plastered on his face.

A million thoughts ran through Daisuke's mind at the sudden appearance of the older boy, preventing him from saying anything other than, "Ta-Taichi-senpai?!" His eyes were wide and his mouth was dry, making him seem even more shocked.

Taichi laughed. "You look like you've seen a ghost!" 

Slowly, the shocked expression was replaced by one of annoyance. "I might as well have, with how often you come around!" Still, Daisuke couldn't help but grin. "What are you doing here?!"

"Oh, Yamato's back. He kidnapped me. Something about needing a vacation," Taichi said, smirking. "I'm disappointed! Aren't you glad to see me?" he added, knowing he was repeating to Daisuke what Yamato had said to him that morning.

Daisuke was glad for the unusually hot day; otherwise Taichi might have noticed the faint blush that grew across the boy's already flushed face. "'Course I am!" Daisuke bit his lip nervously, and then forced a huge grin. "Now you can see how great I've become! The famous Daisuke, surpassing your soccer skills!"

"Oh, you wish!" Taichi laughed, not noticing the awkwardness at all. "Come on, I was gonna meet up with Hikari and Takeru. We should all get some ice cream or something. It's way too hot out here."

Daisuke paused and shook his head slightly. "I can't. I have to... go home and study. Finals."

"Oh..." Taichi couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed; he hadn't seen Daisuke in over a year. "Well, I'm gonna be here a few days... I'll see you later!"

"Yeah. Yeah, sure. We can hang out and stuff." Daisuke forced another grin and headed off towards the locker rooms. "Seeya."

"Seeya..." Taichi waved after the other boy and slowly walked back towards the building, hoping to catch his sister on the way out. 'He really has gotten a lot better. I wonder if he could beat me... I'm so out of practice.' A grin slowly grew across his face. 'He still calls me 'senpai'.'

***

_Dark, soft skin... flushed cheeks... glassy eyes... so warm... Swollen lips pressed together, a sweet taste of his tongue, moist and warm, hot breath... A voice soft and low, "Taichi..."_

"Taichi! Wake UP, already!" Yamato stood over where Taichi was laying on the bed, prodding him with his foot. 

"What?!" Taichi sat up quickly, eyes wide, panting slightly. "...Whassat?" He glanced around the room quickly, somewhat relieved to find it was just Yamato's room and not the dark stuffy one from his dream. Not that it had been a *bad* dream, he was just so tired and-

"You were moaning. What were you *dreaming* about?" Yamato asked, interrupting Taichi's thoughts. 

Taichi flushed and glared up at him from the bed. "Never mind that. Why the hell did you wake me up?"

"I'm going out. I promised some friends I'd meet them since I'm in town."

"So *go* and let me sleep!" Taichi rolled over and covered his head with the pillow.

"Well, I didn't think it would be nice to leave you here at my dad's house without telling you where I'd gone." Yamato smirked slightly. "Besides, you've got a visitor."

"Who would be visiting me HERE?" He glanced over at the alarm clock and grumbled. "And it's not even noon yet! I'm on vacation, make them go away!"

"If you want him to leave, you tell him. I've already running late." Yamato grabbed his wallet and walked out of the bedroom resolutely. Taichi could just make out the sound of him saying something to the guest before the sound of the front door closing behind him.

"Great. Just swell." Taichi got out of the bed and stretched before throwing a shirt on over his boxers and storming out of the bedroom to tell off whoever this unwelcome 'guest' was. "Take a vacation off from school and the FIRST day off I get early-morning visitors. Figures." He stormed into the living room, glaring. "I'm tired and I'm grumpy. Go away and come back after I've gotten some sleep!"

Daisuke looked up, blushing slightly at Taichi's half-dressed appearance. "...Um... sorry... is it too early? I thought you'd be up by now... it is 11..."

Taichi stood there staring at him for a moment before relaxing. Slightly. "What are you doing here? How'd you even know where I was staying?"

"Takeru told me yesterday..." Daisuke averted his eyes slightly. "I can come back later if it's too early! You just said you wanted to hang out, so..."

Sighing heavily, Taichi shook his head. "No, it's okay. Gimmie a minute to shower." Taichi stumbled into the bathroom, calling behind him. "You eaten yet? I'm starved!"

"Nope! Food sounds great!" Daisuke called back. 

"We'll get something to eat and maybe some coffee..." Taichi trailed off, mumbling to himself as he closed the bathroom door behind himself. "Coffee... wonderful caffeine..."

Daisuke practically collapsed onto the couch, still slightly flushed, and let his head fall back slightly. "This is gonna be a long day..."

***

When Taichi returned from the bathroom a while later, his hair was still wet and slicked back, and he was wearing his cargo shorts and a t-shirt. The towel was still around his neck and he had obviously dried himself off quickly, because there were still beads of water on his arms and legs.

"Okay! Food time!" Taichi said, hopping on one foot to get a sock on.

Daisuke took a long look, starting from Taichi's hair, all the way down to his feet, drinking in the sight before snapping out of it and nodding. "Yeah! Food! ...What should we eat?"

"Hmm... I dunno..." Taichi put the other sock on just as ungracefully, and rubbed the towel in his hair. "Something cheap!"

"Sounds like a ramen lunch, then," Daisuke replied, grinning. "S'fine with me!"

"Ramen is *always* fine with you!" Taichi chuckled, tossing the wet towel onto the couch with no intention of putting it away. He ran his fingers through his hair and it slowly poofed up as it dried, falling into place on its own.

Daisuke watched with fascination. "...You don't gel."

"Whassat?" Taichi frowned. "I don't *gel*?"

"Your hair... it's..." Daisuke shook his head to clear it. "Never mind!"  
  
"...Yeah, sure. Weirdo." Taichi grabbed his wallet and keys and went to the front door, slipping on his sneakers. "Wanna walk or drive?"

"Drive? Drive?! DRIVE!" Daisuke said, hopping in place. "You mean you have a CAR now?!"

Taichi rolled his eyes in exasperation, but grinned at Daisuke's enthusiasm. "Sorry, it's not mine. Yamato told me yesterday that I could use his, since I'm lazier than he is."

"Aw... well, that's still good! YAY! We can DRIVE!" Daisuke's eyes widened. "Can *I* drive?!" 

Taichi smirked. "Do you even have a driver's license?"

"Well... no." Daisuke sounded disappointed.

"Then... no. I don't think Yamato would like you destroying his car."

"It's not my fault no one will teach me!" Pouting, Daisuke followed Taichi as they left the apartment, going to the elevator to ride it to the garage.

Unable to resist, Taichi reached over and fluffed Daisuke's hair, chuckling. "When I get my own car, I'll teach you."

Eyes widening, Daisuke gaped at him. "REALLY?"

Taichi shrugged. "Sure, why not? If I ever get a car it'll be a hunk of junk anyway."

"COOL! Jun keeps telling me that she wouldn't trust me on a tricycle, let alone a car..."

"I can understand that," Taichi winked. 

Daisuke stuck his tongue out at him and the elevator stopped. They got out and Taichi let them to Yamato's car, pressing the button on the keys to unlock it. 

"He must have paid a fortune for this... damn rock star."

Daisuke gaped at the car, not touching it. "You sure we can use this? It's kinda... fancy..."

"Yeah, sure. He told me if I mess it up he'll just get a new one. Makes ya kinda sick, don't it?" Taichi was already getting in casually, as if he were accustomed to driving red Jags with custom black leather interiors. He reached over and unlocked Daisuke's door, opening it when Daisuke didn't move. "Come ON! I'm hungry!"

"He had this imported, didn't he?" Daisuke frowned slightly, letting himself sink into the comfortable seat. "I guess he really is famous now..."

"It's just wrong," Taichi stated, starting the car up and driving it recklessly onto the street, heading downtown. "Us, the best soccer stars at school, and we're just boring normal people... while Yamato the blond girly-boy ends up a world famous rock star."

Daisuke practically giggled when the car broke onto the open road, rolling the window down, letting the wind blow through the car. "This is awesome! Someday I'm going to have one just like it! Except it'll be a convertible. Do they make convertible ones like this? ...They must. I want one!"

Taichi nodded and turned the CD player on, leaving in the CD he'd put on to annoy Yamato before, the hard rock blaring loudly out of the car's incredible sound system. Grinning, Taichi began to sing along, loudly, off key. Daisuke grinned back and soon joined him, and people in other cars stared as they heard the horrible noise coming from the speeding red flash that kept passing them dangerously. 

***

"Good ramen," Taichi said, slamming his huge bowl back down onto the table. It was already empty, and he had a vague brown stain across his mouth and chin from slurping up the last of the soup.

"Mmmm..." Daisuke agreed, gulped the last of his broth down.

Taichi sat back in his chair and relaxed. It was nice to be home after all. Considering how close his college was, he didn't come back here often enough. The restaurant was one Daisuke had chosen, claiming it to have the "best ramen you've ever had, no... no, BETTER!", and Taichi was inclined to agree. 

Along the wall behind Daisuke there was a row of large mirrors; Taichi could see himself in them just behind the reflection of Daisuke's back. Looking into the mirror at himself he could see the dark bags that had begun developing under his eyes, and something else interesting. Daisuke had grown. Granted, the boy was still much shorter than Taichi, and would probably never be extremely tall, but he had definitely grown. 

'And aged...' Taichi thought to himself. Although Daisuke still had the same boyish expression, and those huge brown puppy dog eyes, he had filled out in the last year, his shoulders were broader, his body somewhat lankier, his face not as round and childlike. All in all, he looked good. 'Puberty hit him late, too...' Taichi thought wryly. He remembered when his voice cracked the summer before 11th grade and he was so thankful to not graduate from high school sounding like a girl. 'But it did hit him... and how... he really looks like a *guy* and not a *kid*...'

Suddenly, Taichi realized Daisuke was staring at him oddly. "Uh... so! Good food. How'd you find out about this place? I haven't been here before." 'Smooth move, Taichi. Stare at him blankly; I'm sure you don't look stupid now!'

Daisuke suddenly turned an interesting shade of red and ducked his head, toying with his napkin nervously. "Well... uh... a friend... took me here..."

"A friend..." 'What's he freaking out about?' "Who was it? Someone I know?" 

"No! Not really... just... a guy." Daisuke looked awkwardly around the room, trying to think of a new topic quickly.

"Just a guy, huh? Lemme guess, I'm too old and boring to tell stuff to now!" Taichi sighed, pouting slightly. "That's how it goes! You leave for a few years and everyone treats you like a stranger!"

Daisuke's head snapped back to stare at Taichi again, his face slightly flushed. "No! No, it's not that... it's just... I haven't told anyone about him but Ken."

A few thoughts ran through Taichi's mind at that point. Was it a friend from another school? No... that wouldn't make Daisuke act so oddly. Was it someone the others didn't like? Nah, Daisuke wouldn't care that much. Was it... "You have a boyfriend!" Taichi exclaimed, pointing at Daisuke.

"It's rude to point," Daisuke mumbled, staring down at the table again. "And no... I just... had a date."

Okay, weird... Daisuke wasn't the type to be nervous and embarrassed about this kind of thing. "Hey, that's cool!" Taichi did his best to not point out that Daisuke had never actually mentioned that he swung that way, and shrugged it off. Whatever, it wasn't really his business anyway. "How'd it go? Was it recently? Your first date? Who was he?" Daisuke looked at Taichi with that huge-eyed expression he'd use when he was really confused, making Taichi grin. 'Wonder if he knows how cute that is... it'd probably bug the hell out of him if I told him so.' 

"He was... my first real date... yeah," Daisuke finally dropped the look and smiled proudly. "Couldn't resist me! Asked me out, paid for the meal and everything!"

"Hey, not bad!" Taichi smiled widely, lifting his water glass in respect before drinking some down, then wiping his mouth on the back of his hand and plunking the glass back down. "So... why was it 'just a date'?"

"He was..." Daisuke frowned slightly and seemed to be searching for the right words. "He wasn't really the right guy for me." 

'This is crazy. I go to college and Daisuke gets dates, learns to think before he speaks, and from what Hikari tells me, gets awesome grades. What the hell?!' "Really? Holding out for someone rich and famous?" Taichi smirked. "Hey, Yamato's single right now! Here's your chance!" Taichi laughed, hoping to lighten Daisuke's nervousness with the joke.

Daisuke just blushed again and shook his head. "That's okay! I kinda... like someone else. Someone better. Not really rich or famous, though," he said with an amused tone of voice. 

"Hey, how could they possibly be better than rich and famous?" Taichi shook his head, sighing. "Don't tell me you've turned into some sort of romantic!"

"I was always a romantic! Didn't you ever notice?" Daisuke laughed, plucking a rose out of the small vase in the center of the table and holding it to his heart. "Women want me, men want me, I'm a true Romeo!"

Taichi smirked. "I always thought Romeo was kinda girly and whiny."

"Hey! I liked Romeo!" Daisuke pouted and put the rose back. "He did the sword fighting thing! He wasn't girly! ...Guess he was kinda whiny, though." 

Taichi laughed and stood, counting the money for the tab out from his wallet and leaving it on the table. "C'mon, Romeo, let's find some damsels to impress, or some bad guys to skewer."

Daisuke frowned at the wad of bills on the table and took out his own wallet. "You put too much down."

"Yeah, well, you never got much allowance, right? My parents give me money for college. It's no big deal." Taichi shrugged it off, feeling awkward at having it pointed out.

"But you're in college! You probably need that! It's okay, I'll pay for mine." Daisuke fished around in his wallet for a minute, pulling out a few wrinkled bills, counting them out carefully.

Taichi reached out and shoved the money back into his wallet. "It's fine. Seriously. Ramen isn't expensive." Then he smirked, and wiggled his eyebrows at the younger boy. "Now you can say you've had *two* dates be so impressed that they paid your way." With that he turned and walked out of the building, leaving Daisuke to process what he said before running to catch up with him.

"What do you mean date?!" Daisuke yelled after him.

Taichi just laughed and kept walking. 


	2. chapter 2

About Nothing

Chapter 2

It had been only a day since the faux date with Taichi, and Daisuke had been doing a lot of thinking. So much thinking in fact, that his head was beginning to hurt. While normally he would have spent his afternoons playing soccer with friends or at Ken's house, he'd chosen to stay home today to think. Ken was trying to hide his astonishment.

"You don't want to come over because you have to think?" Ken asked, trying not to sound insulting.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's not something I do often. But this is important!" Daisuke answered into the phone, holding it to his ear with his shoulder.

"If it's that important, why can I hear explosions going on over there?" Ken mumbled questioningly.

Daisuke pouted for a moment before realizing Ken couldn't *see* him, and set his controller down, turning off his game before replying. "It helps me think!"

"It sounds to me like it helps you stall," Ken answered.

"...Yeah, maybe that's a better word for it." Daisuke flopped backwards onto his bed and sighed, examining a crack on the wall. "But this is hard. I don't know what to DO!"

"Maybe it would help if you told me what was going on." 

"Taichi-senpai," Daisuke stated simply.

Ken sighed and switched the receiver to his other ear. This was going to take some time. "Didn't we have this same conversation... oh, fifty or sixty times a few years ago?" Ken asked, feeling his nerves already going raw at the thought of yet another pep talk that Daisuke wouldn't listen to.

"Yeah, I know, and I shoulda listened to you then. But... he's back in town. Didja know that?" Daisuke scratched at the crack in the wall idly until a chunk of paint came off, then stopped and sighed. "For spring break."

"Mmm... I heard. Have you spoken to him?"

"Yeah. He came to Friday to say hi." Daisuke paused and grinned. "And we hung out yesterday."

Ken nodded. "How is he?"

"He said it was a date," Daisuke muttered, ignoring Ken's question. "I know he was just teasing me..."

"He does like to tease people. Especially you."

"But... don't you think that means something?" Daisuke asked hopefully.

"I think it means he likes watching you squirm." Ken smirked. 

"Ken," Daisuke whined. "Gimmie some support here!"

"I'm sorry. ...I suppose he might be teasing you because he has some interest in you." Ken didn't really think so, but Daisuke was so pitiful. Besides, he had gotten tired of these conversations ages ago.

"Y'think?" Daisuke sounded hopeful. "Maybe... I should do something then. Like... like buy him flowers! Sweep him off his feet!"

"Daisuke, I recommend you simply tell him how you feel. Be yourself. Taichi-san knows you, you don't have to impress him." Ken sighed and thought, 'Because if you try to impress him you'll just end up embarrassing yourself.' 

"Oh... but just... TELL him? Just like THAT?" Daisuke chewed on his lower lip nervously. "No flashy stuff?"

"Yes. Just let him know how you feel. Be straightforward - he probably needs you to be blunt."

"But Ken... what if he just laughs at me or something?! Or... or-"

"Daisuke," Ken said firmly. "Tell him. Go to his house and tell him. He's your friend; he's not going to laugh. If you want help on what to say... I don't know Taichi-san that well. Why don't you call Yamato or Sora-san?"

"Yeah... I guess I should," Daisuke sat up and peered into one of his desk drawers, wondering if he still had his old address book. "Yamato-san isn't really the kinda guy to ask for *dating* advice, is he?"

Ken paused before answering, his voice slightly off. "I'm sure he'd try to help. Maybe you should ask Sora-san. She and Taichi-san used to be close, and she does have the Crest of Love."

Daisuke grinned. "Hey, I hadn't even thought of that! Gotta be a reason she got that thing, huh? Cool! Thanks, Ken! I'll call you later." Daisuke hung the phone up and hopped up from his bed, looking through the mess in his desk before giving up. "Damn... I hope I still know where she lives." Slipping on his shoes, Daisuke ran out of the house, hoping Sora would be home.

***

Getting to Sora's apartment from his own only took about fifteen minutes if you were walking and actually used the crosswalks. Daisuke made it in eight. Panting heavily, he banged on her door, then leaned against it, trying to catch his breath. The door opened and Daisuke barely caught himself before he fell on his face. "Sora-san! Hi!" he said cheerfully.

Obviously not sure how to react, Sora stood in her doorway staring for a long moment, still wearing rubber gloves and holding a soapy pot in one hand. "...Daisuke-kun? Can I... help you?"

"Yeah, actually! You can!" Daisuke straightened up and stepped into Sora's apartment, kicking his shoes off lazily and glancing around. "I kinda need some advice."

Sora closed the door after Daisuke and went back to the kitchen, returning a moment later free of soap suds and dishes. "You need advice from me?" She smiled and gave him an odd look. "Is Taichi busy?" 

Daisuke plopped down into another chair and grinned sheepishly. "Nah. It's kinda *about* him. So... I had to ask someone else!"

"About Taichi?" Sora was still confused. "Well... I'll do what I can..."

"Great! So, how do I tell him I like him?" Daisuke asked eagerly, leaning forward in his chair.

Sora blinked at him uncomprehendingly, and then laughed. "I see. Why are you asking me this? I'm sure Yamato knows him better than me by now."

"'Cause you got the Crest of Love, right? So you gotta know all this dating stuff!" Daisuke said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh. Yes, I did have it, but that doesn't mean I know more about relationships. If I did, I wouldn't still be living with my mother," she said, seeming amused. She never understood it when people assumed she was date-savvy.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's your strong point or somethin', otherwise you wouldn't have the crest! So c'mon! Gimmie tips! Ken says I gotta just tell him, but I don't know how to _that_. So, tell me!"

"I'm not sure it's my strong point. Our crests were more like what's important to us. Not our *talents*." 

But Daisuke pouted and Sora frowned and tried to think of something. A moment later she suddenly smiled as if she had the answer. Daisuke leaned forward, almost falling out of the chair in anticipation. 

"Cookies!"

"...Cookies," Daisuke said flatly, slumping. "COOKIES will tell him I like him?" he asked, imagining a giant talking heart shaped cookie. It was frightening at best.

"Bake him some homemade cookies! No one can resist fresh chocolate chip." She smiled proudly.

"Isn't that kinda *girly*?" Daisuke wrinkled his nose.

"Most of the best chefs in the world are men." Sora folded her arms. "It has nothing to do with gender. And besides, Taichi loves food."

Daisuke brightened, nodding. "Hey, you got that right. I'd love anybody that made ME cookies!" He jumped up, grinning madly. "Thanks, Sora-san!"   
  


"Or maybe you could..." she trailed off and sighed. Daisuke was already gone. 

***

Jun had been sitting in her room talking on the phone with a girlfriend, admiring her recently painted toenails when it happened. She wasn't sure what to think at first, so she just sat there, phone in hand, toes in the air, a potato chip in her mouth. The sight was too much to take in at once. She started with his feet. 

He was wearing the blue fuzzy slippers she'd gotten him last Christmas, she noted, but they were a much lighter blue now that they were covered in flour. And the apron... she was thankful he'd chosen to wear her navy blue one. Sure, it had a faint flower print, but that had faded with time. She wasn't sure she could have taken it if he'd been wearing their mother's much more feminine daisy yellow one. And that led her to his head. There was a dollop of dough on his nose, flour on his shoulders and in his hair, and she was _certain_ that a bit of his bangs had been singed off. Daisuke was trying to cook.

"Jun... er... Neechan?" Daisuke corrected himself, choosing the cutest version of 'big sister' he could force himself to say, hoping it would help her forget their constant squabbling for just a few hours. "I think I need some help."

She couldn't help it when she laughed. His tone of voice was so serious, as if someone had died. It took her a full five minutes to calm herself and end her phone call. When she hung up the receiver, he was still standing there. "My dear little brother... if you've destroyed the kitchen, I'm not helping you clean it up."

He did his best not to scowl. He needed her help badly and he was desperate enough to admit it. "I'll clean it all up before Mom and Dad get home. But could you help me make some cookies?"

She stared at him blankly. "Cookies?"  
  


"Chocolate chip cookies." He nodded seriously.

"If you wanted cookies that bad, I could've made them. What happened, did the dough explode on you?" she asked, trying to hide her amusement.

"...Only a little!" he said, stomping his food indignantly. "You gonna help me or not?"

"Only if I get to eat half!" she answered cheerfully.

"You can't! These aren't for you!" Daisuke half-yelled, folding his arms defiantly.

"Who *are* they for, then? You aren't a big enough pig to eat them all yourself, are you?"

"...They're for someone else. C'mon, Jun! It's important!" 

She peered at him closely. So, he had someone *important* to make cookies for. She was madly curious about who it was, but she knew asking him now wouldn't do her any good. She nodded. "Okay, sure. We'll make a double batch, though. I'm not baking if I don't get to have some."

Daisuke's gloomy expression faded into a happy smile. "Thanks, Jun! You're a lifesaver!"

She pinched his cheek. "Just remember how sweet your big sister is next time she asks you to do a favor for *her*."

"Yeah, sure!" 

With that he dragged her to the kitchen, which at this moment strongly resembled a war zone. There was flour everywhere, more dirty bowls on the counters than Jun knew they owned, and a carton of spilled milk on one counter. 

"I'm impressed. There's nothing on the ceiling. You must be getting better!" Jun said, patting Daisuke on the back.

"Hey! That time wasn't my fault!" Daisuke pouted.

"Sure, sure. Then who's fault WAS it that we were scraping cake batter off the ceiling for weeks?" Jun grinned and began mopping up the spilt milk with a sponge. She wasn't quite cruel enough to leave all this for Daisuke... and anyway, if she didn't help, he'd never tell her who the cookies were *for*.

"Yeah, okay. So that didn't work so well. But I've learned how to cook since then! I don't get it... cookies shouldn't be this hard!" Daisuke sighed and stared at the cookbook again, popping a chocolate chip into his mouth.

Jun snatched the bag of chips away. "Ramen and cookies are two very different things. Just because you make good noodles doesn't mean you're ready for desserts." She glanced at the cookbook and nodded. "This shouldn't be too hard. You start cleaning up. I'll start baking."

"But... but *I* have to make them!" Daisuke said, worried. "It's not the same otherwise!"

"Daisuke, I'm sure whatever girl you give these to won't mind that your sister helped a little. Anyway, I'll let you stir the batter, and that's the most important part." She grinned and glanced at the electronic beater that was sitting to her side. "But only if you use a spoon and not this." She held it up and gave him a look.

"Well, that's fine with me! That thing's broken! It makes batter go everywhere!" Daisuke began gathering the dirty dishes and washing them by hand. If his mother found a load of all their bowls and cooking stuff in the dishwasher he'd have to explain why.

Jun laughed and put the beater away, tossing the whisks into the sink. They worked in silence for ten minutes until Jun couldn't handle it anymore. "So, who is she?"

Daisuke was elbow-deep in soapy water when she asked. He froze there for a moment, and then went back to scrubbing the dishes. "She? She who?"

"The girl you're going to all this trouble for, dummy. She must really be something if you're *baking* for her." Jun grinned, thinking that usually it was the girl that baked for the *guy*, but Daisuke had never seemed to grasp subtleties like that.

He frowned at the spoon he was drying instead of looking at her. "There is no girl."

Jun thought about that for a moment. "Is this some kind of bribe for a teacher, or did you do something stupid like promise to make them for your friends?" She was just familiar enough with Daisuke's friends and their frequent large get-togethers to know Daisuke usually escaped cooking duty.

"No," Daisuke said hesitantly. "They're for someone else." He looked over and wrinkled his nose. "Does it really matter?"

"'Course it matters! If you think about the person you're cooking for, all your feelings and love will go into the food and they'll have to like you back!" Jun said seriously. "That's how I got my last three boyfriends."

Daisuke shook his head. "Must wear off after a while, then."

"For your information, _I_ dumped _them_." She handed him the bowl and a spoon. "Stir." After he'd begun, she asked, "So, who is he?"

Daisuke froze, the dough only half-mixed. "H-he?! Who he?"

"If you're not making them for your friends, a teacher, or a *girl*, they must be for a boy. Should we use the normal circle shape or the heart one?" Jun asked, holding up two cookie cutters.

"Er..." Daisuke blinked at them, stunned.

"Let's go for a mix, then. It'll look less like, 'Take me, I'm yours!' but still not just like, 'I'm cold and unfeeling.' Okay?"

"Yeah... you're the boss," Daisuke mumbled, going back to stirring.

Jun watched him mix the batter until it began looking right, then snatched the bowl away again. "That's perfect." 

Daisuke licked a bit of the dough off the spoon and shook his head slowly. "Didn't expect you to... y'know."

"Not freak out?" Jun smirked, rolling out the dough. "If I was going to freak out, I would have years ago."

 "Years ago?!" Daisuke's eyes widened. "_I_ didn't know years ago!"

 "Why do you think I didn't say anything? Don't worry, Daisuke. It's my job to know things before you."

 "That's not fair," Daisuke mumbled.

 "It's not supposed to be fair. I'm your big sister. We're just like that." Jun grinned and pulled him over to the counter, handing him the heart-shaped cookie cutter. "Here, help me cut these out."

 "Fine, then. You're so smart, you can figure out who he is all by yourself." Daisuke stuck his tongue out at her and began to carefully place the shaped dough onto the cookie pan at his side.

"At least tell me if he's cute or not! Or is he more the brooding, handsome type?" Jun sighed happily. "This is so adorable! ...As long as you don't get cuter boys than me." 

Daisuke felt himself blush slightly and shook his head. "He's just... him."

"Oh, you're no fun. Well, if he decides to go out with you, you've got to introduce us!"

"Yeah, okay." Daisuke said, grinning and cutting out the last cookie, imagining what the look on Jun's face would be if that happened.

***

Clean pants. Daisuke had worn totally clean pants. This was an occasion. Not that he ever wore dirty clothes on purpose! Just... pants took so much longer to LOOK dirty, so he usually wore them two or... five times before washing them. But today, he had made sure to pick out clean pants. Not to mention one of his shirts that wasn't faded, stained, OR torn. It had taken a while to find both items, and he'd almost begun to think he didn't *have* anything like that, but he'd found them. That combined with making sure his hair was still in top shape, he was sure he looked dashing.

He had finally convinced Jun that the lacy pink cloth bag she'd wanted him to use for the cookies was overdoing it, and had taken the thankfully-asexual lunch bag instead.The cookies were still slightly warm. This was important, Jun had informed him. Warm cookies were much more impressive than cold cookies. But now it was almost 11 o'clock at night, and he wondered if it was okay to come by Yamato's apartment so late. Warm cookies had better be worth it!__

He lifted a fisted hand and knocked on the door, then stood there awaiting his fate and feeling very much like an inmate on death row. Any moment now, his life could end. Then the door swung open, and Yamato was standing there. The blond had on his pink apron, his house slippers, and his hair pulled back into a small ponytail with a few strands hanging out. On top of all of that, there was a smudge of dough on his nose. Daisuke smiled. It was hard to be nervous around someone who looked like that.

"You've got dough on your nose," Daisuke said helpfully.

Yamato arched an eyebrow at him. "So have you."

Daisuke's eyes widened. How could he have missed that?! He clapped a hand over his face, scrubbing at his nose, and then looked at Yamato hopefully. "That it?" 

Yamato frowned and nodded. "Why are you here?"

"Gee, it's great to see you, too." Daisuke grinned again. 

"I repeat. Why are you here?" Yamato shifted his weight to his other foot and looked none too amused.

"Ignore him, Daisuke. He's always like that when he's baking," Taichi's voice said from somewhere behind Yamato.

Daisuke felt himself go tense, but he stepped past Yamato and eyed them both a bit nervously, holding the bag behind his back. "You're baking? You aren't making cookies, are you?" The question came out sounding much more desperate than he'd meant, but he knew his cookies could never stand up to Yamato's.

  
Yamato shook his head. "I'm making tiramisu." So saying, he turned and went back to the kitchen.

Taichi was sitting on the arm of the couch and giving Daisuke a curious look. "What's up?"

"Isn't tiramisu *cold*?" Daisuke frowned, wondering why he could smell something baking in the kitchen.

"Yeah. He's making the ladyfingers from _scratch_," Taichi said, looking mildly frightened. "I'd ask why bother, but it's _Yamato_, y'know? And I'm not gonna get to eat 'em." He pouted, shrugging. "He's got someone to impress I guess."

Daisuke grinned. Yamato was a perfectionist to the point of hilarity. "Sounds kinda scary."

"Yeah. It is." Taichi cocked his head, trying to see what Daisuke was holding so carefully behind his back. "So, what's up?" he repeated himself.

"Uh... well... since you can't have his tiramisu... I have good timing!" Daisuke smiled and thrust the bag in front of him. "They're still warm."

Taichi eyed the bag blankly. "What are?"

"The cookies." Daisuke swallowed hard and took a few steps forward, still holding the bag at arm's reach.

"Cookies?" Taichi brightened. "Warm cookies?" He took the bag and glanced inside. 

" I made them." Daisuke felt his face beginning to get hot and mentally cursed himself. Now was not a good time to blush. "...Jun helped a little, I guess." He grinned sheepishly.

"Oh. Had extra, huh?" Taichi took a heart shaped cookie out of the bag and bit into it. "Hey, these're pretty good!"

Daisuke relaxed, feeling relieved. "Good... I made them for you." He smiled and watched Taichi eat the cookie.  
  


"For me?" Taichi chewed on it and seemed to think for a moment, processing that. "Hey, thanks!"

Daisuke bit his lip and nodded. "So, you like them?"

"Yeah, they're great." He held the bag out. "You should eat some, too. You made 'em."

Daisuke shook his head quickly. "Nah. I'm stuffed." He waited a long moment, wondering what he was supposed to do. Had Taichi understood? 

Taichi ate another cookie, and then glanced at his watch. "Crap, I have to go. Promised some friends I'd go hang out tonight." He hopped up and grinned at Daisuke. 

"Oh... okay. Uh..." Daisuke stood there, feeling confused. "Then... I'll see you later, I guess."

  
"Yeah, sure. If I'm not too hung over, we can hang out tomorrow. I'll give you a call or something," Taichi said, setting the bag of cookies on the table and grabbing his jacket from the hall closet.

Daisuke brightened and nodded. He wanted to hang out! He must have understood! He probably just didn't have time now. Maybe he didn't want to say anything where Yamato could hear it. Yeah, that must be it! "Okay! I can't wait!" With that, he gave Taichi a quick tight hug, then turned and left the apartment, absolutely glowing, and missing the completely confused expression on Taichi's face.


	3. chapter 3

About Nothing

Chapter 3

Weekend nights were traditionally for staying up late, gorging himself on junk food, and watching the really bad movies that were on at about one AM. It was a tradition Daisuke had held for years now, insisting that he'd get to bed early enough Sunday night to get to school on Monday without too much complaint. It was also a tradition that this was never true. Come Monday morning, Daisuke would be dragged out of bed and barely make it on time for his first class.  Jun knew this all too well. This is why she was so shocked when she went into the living room and Daisuke wasn't there. Worried that he'd died or something, Jun went down the hall to her brother's room and peered inside. Daisuke was in bed, his eyes shut tightly.

"Daisuke?" Jun asked softly, wondering if he was asleep. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah," he replied, his eyes not opening. 

"Why are you in bed? It's Saturday night." Jun reminded him.

"I want tomorrow to come sooner so I'm going to bed. Lemme alone, I need to sleep!" Daisuke rolled over, a grin on his face.

"What's the big deal about tomorrow? It's just Sunday." Jun waited for a reply but didn't receive one, so she turned and left, closing the door behind her.

'Tomorrow is when Taichi-senpai will call me,' Daisuke thought to himself, squeezing his extra pillow to his chest tightly. 'Or maybe he won't even call! Maybe he'll just come over and... and kiss me! He won't even say anything, he'll just kiss me! Then he'll talk about how he couldn't wait to see me, how he missed me since yesterday, and how my cookies were the best ones he ever had... and he'll say he wishes he could have cookies like that every day.' Daisuke sighed to himself, grinning wider. 'Then we'll get married!'

Daisuke's breathing slowed, his grip on the pillow loosened, and soon he was asleep, dreaming of how Taichi would look in a tuxedo, or maybe a traditional kimono, and how sweet his lips would taste. Rolling over in his sleep, Daisuke mumbled, "Taichi..."

"Daisuke... wake up..." a voice whispered.

Daisuke smiled, imagining Taichi's face, so when he opened his eyes and saw his sister's, he almost fell out of bed. "Wha-what are you doing in here?! I was trying to sleep!"

"Yeah, and I see what kind of dreams you were having," Jun said, making a face. "You talk in your sleep, y'know." With that, she handed him the phone she was carrying. "It's him. Figured you'd wanna know." Jun turned and left the room.

He stared at the phone uncomprehendingly. "Him?" Daisuke asked out loud. He held the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"Heyyyy, Daisuke!" a voice exclaimed. There was loud music playing in the background and a lot of people talking. Daisuke had to strain to hear the caller.__

"Uh... yeah? That's me... who is-" Daisuke began to ask, not recognizing the voice over the noise.

"Me'n the guys're hangin' out! You should come, too!" 

Daisuke pulled the receiver away from his ear and blinked for a moment before moving it back again. "Taichi-senpai?"

You made me cookies, 'least I can do is buy you a drink!" 

"I... I don't really drink..." Daisuke muttered.

That seemed to baffle Taichi and Daisuke could hear him saying to someone else, "He doesn't drink." Then he seemed to return to the phone. "They say you should come anyway. 'Cause it's all us old soccer guys, and even though you were too young to play with most of 'em, they wanna hang out. So c'mon!"

"Well, I guess since my parents are out tonight... I can probly go..." Daisuke said, feeling a small thrill that Taichi would think to invite him. "Where is it?"

"The bar down by the ice-cream place we always used to go to. Y'know?" Taichi said, sounding distracted.

"Yeah, okay! I'll be there in a half an hour!" Daisuke hopped to his feet and hung up the phone, grabbing the clothes he'd worn earlier. "Gotta hurry, gotta hurry, gotta hurry! Taichi-senpai wants to hang out with me!!!" Daisuke ran down the hall and was putting on his shoes when Jun noticed him.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, chewing on one of the extra cookies.

"Taichi-senpai called! He and some of the guys from his old soccer team want me to go hang out with them!" Daisuke smiled hugely and gave Jun a tight hug. "The cookies worked! I'll be home... uh... later! Don't wait up!" 

Then he was gone, and Jun was left standing there, stunned, a cookie hanging out of her mouth.

***

Daisuke had never been to a real bar before. Sure, he'd walked by them, and he'd even had a few beers in his life, though he'd never liked the taste. But he'd never been inside a *real* bar. He was relieved to see it was relatively clean when he stepped through those ominous metal doors. The bar was fairly well lit, with a modern edge to it. The air was warm and a bit humid, which was a nice change from the cool air outside. The only thing he didn't like was the unbearably loud music blasting from speakers in every corner. Daisuke walked through the room nervously, eyeing various groups of people sitting at the tall stainless steel tables, trying not to fall off their stools in their drunken state. 

He got all the way to the back of the building and had almost given up when he spotted a row of red leather booths, and ran over to glance into them. Sure enough, the first of them contained Taichi and a few other faces he recognized. The table was littered with empty sake bottles and beer cans, and everyone was currently occupied chugging what seemed to be the last of some sort of bright orange liquid. Daisuke didn't even want to think about how whatever that stuff was tasted.

"Uh... hi!" he said when they all plunked their mugs back on the table, looking dizzy and laughing. 

Taichi looked up from his glass and gave Daisuke a confused glance. "What're you doin' here?" 

"Taichi, you dumbass, you called him and told him to come meet us!" another one of them laughed. "You're wasted already?"

Taichi's face lit up in recognition. "Ohhhh, yeah! C'mon, Dai, sit over here! You guys move, Dai's gotta sit nexta' me." He shoved the two men sitting to his right out of the booth and grabbed Daisuke's wrist, pulling him in to sit next to him. The displaced men didn't seem to mind too much, laughing and climbing back into the booth to pour themselves more drinks.

Daisuke smiled, feeling elated that Taichi wanted to be near him, and even more so that the booth was now crowded enough that he had a reason to snuggle up to the older boy. "Thanks, Taichi-senpai!"

One of the men Daisuke seemed to remember being called  Shinta laughed. "You still call him that? 'Senpai'? C'mon, Daisuke! You're not a kid anymore!" 

Daisuke scowled slightly, feeling a blush raise to his cheeks. He'd never liked Shinta. Shinta was too fond of teasing him mercilessly. Daisuke opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Taichi.

"You're just jealous 'cuz no cute boys call *you* 'senpai'." Taichi threw an empty beer can at his friend. 

Daisuke gave Taichi a stunned look and blushed, hoping it was him and not the beer talking.

Shinta laughed and tried to catch the can, but Taichi's throw was so off it hit another boy Daisuke had only ever known by his nickname, 'Spike'. Spike threw it back at Taichi and only missed a bit. "Watch where you're aimin', Taichi!"

The boy to Daisuke's right wasn't someone he recognized, but that didn't seem to stop him from leering at Daisuke really obviously. "So you're only... what, seventeen?" 

"Er... almost eighteen," Daisuke said, trying to scoot closer to Taichi even though he was already pressed against him. 

Taichi swatted at the strange man. "Just hit him if he gets too weird, Dai. He's a cuddly drunk." 

Everyone laughed as if this was hilarious, and Daisuke couldn't help but feel he'd missed something. Still, Taichi kept calling him 'Dai', and that had to mean something, right?

Daisuke was busy laughing when everyone else did, and trying to understand half of what they were talking about, while at the same time concentrating on how warm Taichi's side was, and trying not to lean against him too obviously; when a small glass of something clear was shoved in front of him. 

"C'mon, you can't just sit there! Drink somethin'!" one of the men Daisuke had never seen before said, nudging the glass forward.

"I really don't like alcohol..." Daisuke started, trying to push the glass away. But then he caught Taichi's gaze and froze. He couldn't act like a kid in front of Taichi. Not now that things were going so well! So he picked up the glass and nodded. "Okay. What is this stuff?"

"Oh, nothin' too bad!" the man said, laughing. Everyone joined him, including Taichi.

"C'mon, Dai! It's not that bad." Taichi added, taking the glass. "Here, I'll show you." With that he drank down half the glass, and then handed it back to Daisuke. "Now your turn."

  
Daisuke took the glass and stared at the slight smudge on it from Taichi's lips. Now he *had* to drink it. 'Indirect kiss,' he thought, as he pressed the glass to his lips and chugged down the liquid. Indirect kiss or not, the drink was horrible and burned his throat on the way down. Daisuke dropped the glass, felt his face wrinkle up in disgust, and coughed. 

The man who handed him the glass laughed. "Looks like somebody doesn't like vodka!" 

"Is that what that was?" Taichi asked, looking confused. "I didn't think it was that bad... guess I'm more drunk than I thought!" He laughed a bit and wrapped an arm around Daisuke's back, rubbing it gently. "Sorry, Dai! I woulda warned you! Here, this'll help." Taichi grabbed some food from one of the plates on the table and held the bit of dried squid to Daisuke's mouth. 

Daisuke stopped coughing and took the squid from Taichi's fingers. He found himself leaning into Taichi's side again, comforted by the older boy's arm wrapped around him and the gentle rubbing. For a few minutes he didn't pay attention to how much Taichi was drinking. For a few minutes he forgot the laughter and loud music and yelling. He forgot the horrible taste in his mouth and the nasty way the man next to him kept staring. All he knew was how nice it felt to get all this attention from Taichi, and the way his fingers had tasted when he'd taken the squid. 

A few minutes was plenty long enough for everything to go bad. Daisuke was suddenly awakened from his daydreaming by Taichi shoving at his side. "Move... move quick..." The two men on the end jumped out of the booth and moved out of the way, and Daisuke followed their lead, letting Taichi out to run to the bathroom. Daisuke stared after him.

"Shouldn't someone go..." he began, worried.

"Don't worry about him," Shinta said. "He's a lightweight. Never did get used to drinking stuff this strong!" He laughed and held up his glass, drinking down the rest of what he had.

Daisuke frowned at them and walked after Taichi, heading to the bathrooms. Taichi was sick, obviously. But Daisuke felt a strange bit of happiness, knowing Taichi wasn't used to drinking this much. It meant that, even though he was in college now, he wasn't just partying all the time. Daisuke was proud of Taichi for being mature... at least some of the time.

When he reached the bathroom doors, he stepped into another world. The clean metallic look of the bar was gone, leaving only a dingy feeling in its place. The bathroom walls were painted a vomit green, and there were stains and graffiti all over them. The floor must have been white at one point, but now it was a dirty rust color. The urinals looked as though they'd been scrubbed but the stains just wouldn't come off. And at the end of a row of stalls was one with the door half-open and Taichi inside it, bent over a toilet. Now he remembered why he'd never bothered getting used to the way beer tasted.

"Taichi-senpai?" Daisuke walked into the stall, ignoring the strange looks from the other men using the facilities, and gave Taichi a worried look. His idol was half-leaning on the wall, green in the face and propping himself up on the back of the toilet. Daisuke glanced down morbidly, but there was no mess. Taichi hadn't puked yet. "Are you okay?"

Taichi just shook his head, looking miserable, then doubled over and vomited into the water. Daisuke gagged and averted his eyes, trying not to throw up as well. There was a sudden smell of sick and acid, and it was all Daisuke could do not to run. Still, he remembered that whenever he was sick, Jun would always rub his back and it'd help, so he reached over and did the same thing for Taichi, trying not to breathe through his nose or look down. 

Finally Taichi stood, wiping his face on some toilet paper, and flushing the toilet. "Ugh... I'm sick." He blinked, looking completely dazed.

"Maybe you should go home now, Taichi-senpai," Daisuke said carefully. "You've probably had enough to drink." 

Taichi nodded slowly, moving to the sinks to wash himself off and rinse out his mouth. Daisuke watched him, wondering if he was sober enough to get himself back to Yamato's apartment. He'd probably have to take a bus to get back or maybe even the subway, and Daisuke didn't want him to get lost.

Taichi straightened back up and stumbled a bit, then grinned at Daisuke. "I should go home."

"Yeah. Yeah, you should." Daisuke couldn't help but smile back. At least his idol felt better now. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a small mint he remembered grabbing from the Chinese restaurant he'd gone to with Ken. Their mints were the cool, green striped kind, so he'd taken a fistful. Favorite mints or not, Taichi needed this last one. "Here, this'll help with the taste and... well, the smell," Daisuke said, putting the mint into Taichi's hand.

Taichi blinked at it, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth. Then his expression crumbled and he gave Daisuke what he thought was the saddest look he'd ever seen. "I don't wanna go home. Yamato'll yell at me for waking him up... and I don't have a key."  
  
"You don't have a key?" Daisuke frowned. Yamato was probably deep asleep now, and he knew how it felt to get yelled at. 

Taichi nodded unhappily, sucking on the mint. "Yamato'll yell at me and I don't feel good and I don't wanna sleep outside."

Again, Daisuke opened his mouth without thinking. "You can come stay at my place!" he said, not considering what his parents or Jun would say when they found out at all. "You can come stay at my place!"

"Really?" Taichi's face lit up and he smiled. "Great! Let's go!" Taichi was back in high spirits, and led Daisuke, somewhat dizzily, out of the bathroom and back into the less foul-smelling bar.

Daisuke followed Taichi halfway through the crowd towards his friends before Taichi stumbled over his own feet, almost falling. Daisuke grabbed his arm and steadied him. Taichi gave him a smile which Daisuke returned nervously and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, leaning on him a bit. Daisuke swallowed and wrapped an arm around his waist. "Don't fall over," he said helpfully.

"I won't! I can lean," Taichi said, putting a bit more of his weight on Daisuke to indicate what he meant. When they reached the booth, Taichi pulled his wallet out of his pocket and tossed some bills onto the table. Daisuke's eyes widened when he saw how much Taichi was leaving. Either he had expensive taste, or he was too drunk to remember how money worked.

Shinta was the only member of the group not half-passed out at the table. "Takin' the sick guy home, Daisuke?" he asked.

"He's taking me home," Taichi said happily, like he hadn't heard the question.

"Seeya later, then!" Shinta said, grabbing the last bit of dried squid.

Daisuke scowled at the lot of them before turning and leading Taichi towards the doors. How could they just ignore him when he was sick like that? He decided he didn't really like Taichi's other friends much. 

The walk home took an hour rather than the normal fifteen minutes. Every few steps, Taichi would stumble or he'd simply stop walking for no reason. Daisuke found Taichi's drunken antics entirely unattractive, but took a certain pride in the fact that he was going to take care of him for once, not the other way around. By the time they were within sight of his building, he thought it would all be okay. Taichi chose that moment to throw up again.

When Daisuke got Taichi up the stairs and inside his apartment, his senpai was looking a little better. 'Sure he is,' Daisuke thought. 'There's no beer left in his stomach. There's *nothing* left in his stomach.' 

He made a face and did his best to lead Taichi down the hall to the bathroom. "C'mon, Taichi-senpai, you need to get cleaned up."

"M'sorry I puked, Dai. I'm better now!" Taichi said, smiling weakly.

Daisuke glanced down at his shoes and said, "It's fine, you just need to rest. C'mon, just a little further, just in here..." Daisuke led him into the bathroom and helped him sit on the edge of the tub. "I guess... you should probably just rinse your mouth and stuff. You can shower tomorrow. If you tried right now, you'd probably fall over or something."

Taichi gave Daisuke a lopsided grin. "But I can stand if I lean on you... you could help me shower!" 

Daisuke paled and gulped. "N-no! You... you need your rest! Yeah! So... so you can shower tomorrow!" He grabbed a bottle of mouthwash from below the sink and handed it to Taichi. "Here, just swish a bunch of this around in your mouth and spit it out and you'll be fine."

Taichi peered at the bottle in confusion. "I don't want more to drink, Dai," he said, sounding positively whiny.

"It's... not to drink. You just spit it back out."

"Oh." Taichi opened the bottle and poured some into his mouth straight from the bottle, then sat there with his mouth full of Mouthwash. It took him a few moments for the burning to register, but his eyes suddenly went wide and he swallowed the whole mouthful. "Eaugh! That was horrible!" He tossed the bottle onto the floor, spilling half of it. "I don't like that drink."

Daisuke's jaw dropped and he stared. "You're...  you're supposed to spit it out! It's not a *drink*, it's..." He sighed and stopped. "Never mind. At least your breath won't stink now." Daisuke went to the medicine cabinet, retrieved some aspirin, and filled his bathroom mug with water, handing them to Taichi. "Take that and drink the water. Dad says it keeps you from getting hangovers." 

Taichi frowned. "Is this gonna taste bad, too? That blue stuff tasted bad and made my stomach hurt again." Taichi's words were beginning to slur even more, and Daisuke sighed. It'd only been an hour since he'd had his last drink. He wouldn't be sober 'til the next morning.

"No, it's just water. It'll make your stomach better, I promise," Daisuke said, trying to be patient. 

Taichi gave him a skeptical look, but popped the asprin into his mouth and swallowed it, then drained the glass. "That wasn't bad," Taichi said, as if this was surprising.

"...Yeah. Okay." Standing, Daisuke offered Taichi his hand. "Let's just get you to bed, all right?"

"Bed? Let's go to bed?" Taichi asked, standing and wobbling a bit.

  
"Yes, bed. You'll feel much better after you do," Daisuke said, leading him down the hall. 

He would've been worried about the noise, but Jun slept with headphones on so she could listen to her crappy music all night and their parents were out for the night. 'Maybe I should write her a note... in case mom and dad get home before Taichi-senpai leaves... don't wanna have 'em just find him in my bed and me on the couch.' He sighed and shook his head. 'I hate sleeping on the couch. Maybe if I use the extra pillows from the closet-'

Daisuke's thoughts were cut off abruptly when he suddenly found himself being lifted into the air. 

"Okay! Bed, then!" Taichi had what Daisuke thought was a very frighteningly drunken expression on his face, and he was the one responsible for the lifting.

"T-Taichi-senpai!" Daisuke wrapped his arms around Taichi's neck tightly and clung to him. 'He's gonna drop me! He's so drunk, he's gonna drop me and I'm gonna die!' 

Taichi manuvered the bedroom door open and kicked it shut behind them again once they were inside. He wobbled for a moment, making Daisuke cling tighter to him, then walked to the bed and dropped Daisuke unceremoniously onto the mattress. Daisuke sat there, wide-eyed, pale, and gasping for breath while Taichi towered over him, leering.

"Taichi-senpai, what do you think you're doing?!" Daisuke hissed once he'd caught his breath. He absolutely *hated* heights, and he hated falling from them even more. He would have been yelling, but even with the headphones, his sister wasn't *that* heavy of a sleeper.

"Going to bed," Taichi said, his voice suddenly husky. 

Daisuke's eyes almost popped out of his head and he scooted back a bit. "Er... good! So, I'll just go sleep on the couch, and you can sleep here, and-"

Taichi's face was suddenly iches from Daisuke's, and he'd sat directly in front of Daisuke on the mattress, blocking any means of escape. "But I wanna sleep _with_ you, Dai." Taichi scooted closer and Daisuke scooted back, finding his back pressed against the wall. 

Daisuke was panicking. This wasn't right at all. Taichi was so close, and if he hadn't just seen his senpai throw up repeatedly, he might have been in serious trouble Luckily, Taichi still stank of beer, and the memories of puke were plenty to keep him from doing anything too stupid. "Taichi-senpai... I have to go sleep on the couch. You need to rest! Yeah. So, you'll feel better in the morning! Okay?" 

Taichi's leaned in and his lips were less than an inch away from Daisuke's now. "But you're taking such good care of me... and you made me cookies... I wanna do somethin' for _you_..." 

Daisuke was frozen in place. It would've been so easy to lean in and kiss him, just once. He wouldn't even remember... probably. But imagining Taichi's expression if he *did* remember snapped him out of it. He couldn't bear the thought of getting rejected like that. "No, that's okay. The best thing you could do for me would be to go to sleep. Really!"

The leer on Taichi's face faded into a soft smile. "Okay, Daisuke... Dai... Dai-chan!" Taichi slurred, chuckling happily. With that, he laid down, tugging Daisuke down next to him, and throwing an arm over Daisuke's chest, effectively pinning him. "Nighty night!"

It was an hour before Daisuke could sleep. When he finally got them into a comfortable position, Taichi was only half-covered by the blankets, but that wasn't really his issue. His issue was how close Taichi was, and how sweet he looked asleep like that. Daisuke smiled for the first time since he'd gone out that night, wondering if Taichi would still want to kiss him in the morning.

***

'Stupid sun,' Taichi thought to himself, squinting his eyes shut tighter and rolling over. 'Whyzzit have to be so bright? I thought Yamato had those dark blinds...' Taichi sighed, then smiled. He felt rested. His head hurt, though, and his stomach felt strangely empty and unsettled. Still, it was the best night of sleep he'd gotten in weeks. 'No dreams. No weird ass sex dreams. Man, maybe alcohol is good for you after all?' Taichi chuckled, cuddling closer instinctively to a warm presence in the bed, his eyes still shut. 'Wonder how I got home last night... barely remember even going out! I musta gotten smashed and called Yamato to come get me. Man, I'm gonna get lectured.' 

He nuzzled closer to the warmth in the bed for a full minute before realizing something was wrong. 'I thought Yamato was sleeping in the guest bed.' He opened his eyes, an uneasy feeling creeping into his stomach. All he could see was dark reddish hair. His face was pressed to the back of someone's head, and Yamato certainly didn't have red hair. Taichi felt his entire body stiffen with horror. 'Wha-what did I do last night?! Who... what...?!' 

Taichi slowly backed away, trying not to wake up the other occupant of the bed, and slowly sat up, peering down at the person he most definitely didn't remember shacking up with. 

"Daisuke?!"


	4. chapter 4

About Nothing

Chapter 4

"Daisuke?!"

Daisuke's eyes fluttered open. "Mmmm?" he asked unintelligibly. 

Taichi felt his heart beat faster and glanced around the room for a quick escape route. For a moment, he considered jumping out the window, but they were at least a few floors up. Or were they? He'd never been over before and he didn't remember how he got here in the first place. Still, it wouldn't be nice to jump and *then* realize he was twenty floors up. The door looked like the only option. But he was trapped between the wall and Daisuke, and there was no graceful way to escape. Damn.

Daisuke rolled over and blinked at Taichi in a sleepy sort of way. "Taichi-senpai?" he asked, sounding dazed and tired. "Taichi-senpai!" Daisuke sat up so quickly that Taichi jumped back in surprise, his eyes wide. "You're awake! Are you okay? Are you gonna puke again? Do you have a headache? A hangover? You shouldn't have one 'cause you had that asprin but maybe I should have given you something else, but that's all we had, so if you have a hangover I'm sorry!" 

Taichi stared at him, much too tired for Daisuke's nervous jabber. "...What?"

Daisuke smiled and scooted closer to Taichi. "Are you okay?"

Nodding slowly, Taichi eyed the door again. 'Crap... crap, crap, crap! What did I DO?! Maybe if I leave now, he'll... just... forget!' 

"Good! I'm glad you're not still sick!" With that, Daisuke glomped onto Taichi firmly and clung to him, showing no sign of letting go any time soon.

As Taichi had been about to jump up and make a break for it, he had no idea how to react to the hug. 'Oh gods, I *did* do something stupid!' He put his hands on Daisuke's shoulders to try to push him off, but Daisuke took this as a return hug, and sighed happily.

"Um...err...well..." Taichi said eloquently, flailing a bit. "Daisuke?"

"Yes, Taichi-senpai?" Daisuke looked up at him and beamed.

"I-" Taichi stopped. "What did we..." The words were stuck in his throat. "Last night..." He sighed. "Never mind." 'I can't ask him what happened when he's looking at me like THAT! What if I DID something?!' Taichi thought.

"What was that about last night?" a dry-sounding voice asked, coming from the doorway.

Taichi looked up quickly, wishing Daisuke would stop hugging him already. This looked bad enough as it was.

"Er, huh?" Jun frowned at him. "Daisuke, I thought you went to meet *him*, not bring him *home*."

Daisuke let go and grinned at his sister. "Oh, it's no big deal. He was just so drunk!"

Jun's frown deepened. "Drunk?"

Taichi winced and hoped that was the end of the story.

No such luck."Yeah, drunk," Daisuke repeated cheerfully. "And all his friends tried to get me to drink, but it's a good thing I didn't 'cause then no one would have kept him from passing out in the bathroom!"

Taichi felt himself shrink down a bit, and wished he had somewhere to hide.

Jun just glared at him. "S'that so? And then what happened?"

"Well, he puked. That's pretty normal when you're drunk, though, right?"

Jun nodded and Taichi shrunk further.

"But Yamato-san would have been mad at him if he went home drunk so I brought him here and took care of him!" Daisuke turned back to Taichi and smiled. "And you're not still sick, so I did pretty good, huh?"

Taichi gave him a weak smile. Jun was all but glaring at him now. "Er... yeah," he said nervously.

"And what's he doing in your bed?" Jun asked, obviously talking to Daisuke but still looking at him.

Was that a blush on Daisuke's face? 'Oh, gods... I can't take this...' Taichi jumped up. "Bathroom," he mumbled, and ran from the room, shoving past Jun.

Daisuke stared after him. "Maybe he is still kinda sick. I'd better check on him." 

"No, don't worry about it." Jun walked over and sat next to Daisuke, looking at him closely. "Did he *do* anything to you?"

Daisuke gave her a pointed look. "He was drunk. The only thing he did was try to kiss me. But I didn't let him." He folded his arms and scowled. "Give me more credit than that. I'm not *desperate*."

Jun smiled and patted him on the back. "So he *is* the one you like."

Daisuke's face went red and he scowled at her. "One word and you're dead."

She laughed and shook her head. "Would I do that to my one and only little brother?"

  
"Yes. You would." Daisuke continued scowling at her. "Do it and I'll hate you *forever*."

"What does it matter anyway? You gave him the cookies, he spent the night. It's not like he could *still* not know." Jun smiled at him. "But I promise I won't say anything. It's cute this way." She fluffed Daisuke's hair and hopped up, leaving the room.

Daisuke sighed and straightened his hair out. "Cute," he grumbled to himself. "Stupid Jun." 

"What's cute?" Taichi's voice came from the doorway. He was standing there looking nervous, awkward, and a bit pale. 

"Nothing!" Daisuke said, jumping up. "Are you okay? Were you sick?"

"Nah, I'm fine." Taichi scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Er... look, I'm sorry about last night. I don't drink often, so I'm kinda...dumb when I do."

Daisuke shook his head violently. "No! It's okay! I didn't mind!" He grinned proudly at Taichi. "I liked helping you out."

Taichi gave him a weak smile. "Sure. Um... I have to go. Yamato'll worry if I don't show up. So... I'll just go." He began backing out of the room, hoping he could get away without any further weirdness. He was sure he was imagining most of it, but things seemed kind of odd.

"But you shouldn't go by yourself! You were sick and stuff!" Suddenly Daisuke was at Taichi's side, already donning his jacket. "I'll go with you!"

"No!" Taichi nearly shouted, putting more distance between them. "I mean... no, I'm fine. You should, uh... study or something!"

Daisuke blinked at him, then smiled. "Nah, I should walk you home. In case you suddenly feel sick again."

Taichi considered explaining to Daisuke that you don't *get* relapses of drunkenness, but he was so enthusiastic and Taichi was so confused. He decided not to bother. "Yeah, okay."

  
Leading them down the hall to the front door, Daisuke slipped his shoes on and waited for Taichi to do the same, then turned to yell back into the apartment. "Going out! Be back later!" He grabbed Taichi's arm and dragged him out the front door, slamming it shut before anyone could reply.

"What was that all about?" Taichi asked, tugging his arm out of Daisuke's grip.

Shrugging, Daisuke led them down the stairs. "If I let my parents answer, they'll bug me. So I just leave."

Taichi smirked. "Yeah, that's how I always handled that stuff, too." He grinned to himself, walking alongside Daisuke and taking the stairs two at a time. Things weren't going so badly. Daisuke wasn't acting weird at all! He must have some sort of weird paranoia from being drunk, that's all! No problems. No problems at all. Everything was fine!

Or so he thought, until Daisuke took his hand.

"Do you wanna walk or take the bus?" Daisuke asked, smiling at him and tightening his grip on Taichi's hand as if he was scared Taichi would pull away.

"Er... walking's fine," Taichi mumbled, remembering that he had no bus fare left. He pulled on the hand slightly, testing Daisuke's reaction, and felt the way Daisuke tensed up when he did it. 'Shit... I guess... I shouldn't pull away. He did watch my back last night and all. Plus, he and Ken are kinda touchy-feely for guys. He probably just does this with all his friends.' So they walked, and he let the shorter boy keep a hold on his hand. 

***

'Never thought I'd smile so much my face would hurt,' Daisuke thought to himself as he and Taichi approached Yamato's apartment.  He reached up with his free hand and rubbed his cheeks a bit, but the smile wouldn't go away. Daisuke wondered if his face would get stuck this way. Or if it was already! It ached enough that his eyes were slightly watery, but that was partially just from excitement. Taichi hadn't really spoken the whole way over, but he hadn't pulled away yet, either! Things were looking up.

Little did he know how relieved Taichi was to finally be on Yamato's floor. The knot in the older boy's stomach had begun to loosen as soon as they got up that last step. There was the door, and that's where he'd be able to escape! Escape and get away from this weird day. 'I should just go to bed. Go to bed and sleep all day... and then today won't have happened! Yeah! I can just forget it all...' 

They paused outside the door and Taichi pulled on his hand, giving Daisuke a slightly nervous look. "Er... I gotta knock."

Daisuke blinked at him, then let go of his hand and laughed. "Oh, yeah! Sorry!" The smile was still there. 

Knocking on the door, Taichi sighed with relief. Safety at last! Yamato may not have been the most logical person in the world, but Taichi understood his weirdness. The Jogress made sure that he was never this confused around his best friend. He was relieved to be back in a world that would make sense again.

But no one answered the door.

"Er... maybe he's out?" Daisuke suggested, peering through the peep-hole, as if that would help. 

"Nah, he probably just didn't hear it." Taichi frowned, grabbing the doorknob and trying to turn it. 'This is stupid, Yamato never forgets to lock the door,' he thought, as the door swung open. "The hell...?" Taichi frowned and tensed slightly Something was wrong. He stepped into the entryway and kicked off his shoes, turning to Daisuke and putting a finger to his lips. This didn't feel right at all.

Following Taichi into the darkened foyer, Daisuke widened his eyes and let them adjust to the dark. It looked like Yamato wasn't home. There were mugs on the table, one of the couch pillows on the floor... Daisuke let his eyes scan over the room. He didn't think this mess was really like the older boy. "Augh!" Daisuke yiped, grabbing at Taichi's arm and pulling on his sleeve. 

"Shhhh!" Taichi hissed at him. "What is it?" 

"Th-that!" Daisuke pointed to the foot of the couch, upon which there was a discarded pair of pants. 

Taichi stopped mid-step. Yamato would never leave his own clothing out here. Besides, he didn't own any pants like that. This wasn't right at _all_. "Stay here." Taichi shrugged his arm out of Daisuke's grip and walked quickly to Yamato's bedroom. There was a bit of light coming out from under the door, and he felt his back tense up. 

Daisuke was hot on his heels, wondering to himself if a burglar had broken in, or worse. "Do... you think we should...?" Daisuke whispered, pointing to the door.

Taichi wasn't listening. He tried the doorknob, but this one was locked. That wasn't going to stop him, though. "Yamato?!" Taichi called through the door, and waited maybe two seconds before lifting his foot and kicking the door in with one strike, neatly breaking the lock. The wood splintered a bit and the door swung open. 

"Taichi! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Yamato yelled, grabbing the comforter on his bed to cover himself. The blond was lying in bed, and had been facing the other way. His lips were swollen, and the room smelled funny to Daisuke. Almost musky.

Daisuke squinted his eyes and peered over Yamato's body to see who it was he'd been cuddling. "Ken?!" Daisuke felt his jaw drop. "What... why... when...?!"

Taichi let out a heavy sigh, giving the two boys in Yamato's bed an annoyed look. "Wasn't *I* using this bed?"

Ken wriggled further under the blanket, his face bright red. Avoiding Daisuke's gaze, he instead turned his head and stared at the wall closely.

Yamato scowled back at Taichi. "Yes, but you didn't come home. Go on, let us get dressed." He sighed and sat up, making sure the blanket stayed firmly up around his neck as he did so. 

"You're naked?!" Daisuke blurted, still gaping at them.

Rolling his eyes, Taichi grabbed Daisuke's arm and dragged him away from the room. "Can't believe this... he's getting laid while I'm suffering..." Taichi grumbled to himself.

Luckily - or maybe unluckily - Daisuke didn't seem to hear him. "They... they were doing it!" Daisuke said, his eyes still huge. "Ken and Yamato-san!" 

Taichi sat on the couch and yanked Daisuke down next to him. "Yeah, looks like it."

Daisuke's face went pink. "Do you think we... y'know... interrupted them?!"

Laughing, Taichi shook his head. "I wouldn't worry about that. Yamato would have been a lot angrier if they'd been in the middle of something."

"Oh. Well... I guess that's good." Daisuke frowned and sighed. "I didn't know they were dating. Did you?"  
  
"Nope. Guess we know who he's been making all that fancy food for now, though." Taichi leaned back and propped his feet up on the coffee table, sighing. 'And I thought things would be _less_ confusing here.'

"Daisuke?" Ken walked into the living room with his hair a bit tussled, wearing pants that Daisuke recognized from Yamato's wardrobe.

"Hey, missing these?" Daisuke held up the pants that were draped over the couch and laughed. "Why didn't you tell me?!" He tossed Ken the pants and grinned at him. 

Ken caught the pants and smiled, seeming to relax. "I was going to." He walked over and sat across from them in a large armchair. "Sorry."

Daisuke shrugged. "It's okay. Sorry for walking in on you. We thought Yamato was dead!"

"Aw, you were worried about me, Taichi? How sweet." Yamato came in and squeezed into the armchair with Ken, grinning. 

"Oh, shut up." Taichi stuck his tongue out. "Thought you were getting raped or something. I don't usually find weird pants lying around over here, y'know." Taichi waggled his eyebrows and smirked. "'Course, I wasn't that far off, was I?"

  
Ken turned a bright shade of red and looked down into his lap awkwardly.

"Very funny, Taichi. You're just jealous." Yamato kissed Ken's cheek and smiled at him before looking back at Taichi angrily. "Where were you, anyway? Don't tell me you partied all night."

Taichi tensed up again. "Er... y'know, I can tell you about that later!" 

Ken stood and sighed. "I should go." he turned to Yamato and grinned sweetly. "I'll call you later tonight." 

Yamato nodded and smiled back, pulling him into a quick kiss. "Don't forget." 

"Awwww, how cute!" Taichi said in a sugary tone of voice. "You're both blushing!"

"And you sound like Mimi," Yamato spat, giving Taichi an embarrassed glare. 

Daisuke jumped up, the smile back in place. "Hey, Ken! I'll walk partway with you, okay?"

Ken nodded and headed towards the door, giving Yamato one last glance before leaving. Daisuke followed him, giving Taichi a similar look as he closed the door behind them.

The air outside was cooler than it had been earlier, and Daisuke looked up at the sky, pointing to the dark gray clouds that were moving in. "It's gonna rain."

Ken nodded and walked along beside Daisuke, saying nothing.

"So, how was it?" Daisuke asked, bouncing a bit as he walked.

"How was what?" Ken asked, his ears turning red with an oncoming blush.

"Ohhhhh that good, huh?" Daisuke laughed. "You shoulda told me sooner. But that's okay... he's treating you good, right?" 

Ken smiled at Daisuke and nodded. "We're both happy."

"When did this happen, anyway?" Daisuke asked, kicking a pebble along the sidewalk. He kicked it along every few steps until it skipped off into the road, and he sighed. "Darn."

"If you mean when we started dating, just two days ago," Ken told him, sounding wistful. "But we talked about it before, in letters. He's just been gone so long," he said, pausing for a long moment before continuing. "Yamato isn't going away again for a while, and he's not going to go on anymore tours that last more than a month again." 

"So you two are _it_, huh? Wedding bells ringing yet? What'll you name the kids?" Daisuke poked Ken in the ribs, grinning widely.

Ken rolled his eyes and poked Daisuke back, right in a pressure point. "Very funny."

Daisuke yelped and stumbled a bit at the poke, barely managing to catch himself before he fell. "You're too rough."

"I tried to call you last night, but your sister said you were out with Taichi-san." Ken peered at Daisuke suspiciously. "Did you tell him, then?"

Daisuke felt the smile return in full force, and shook his head. "Kinda. Not really. I guess." He took a deep breath and looked up as he felt a raindrop fall on his nose. "I made him cookies! And then he went out to party, and he invited me to go with him! And... I guess he got pretty drunk, so I took him home. I don't think I'll be able to sleep alone again... it felt pretty good to have someone else there."

Ken choked on his own breath and stopped in the middle of a crosswalk, only just remembering how to walk in time to avoid a passing car. He grabbed Daisuke's arm and stopped him. "You slept together?!" Ken demanded, gaping.

"Well, yeah. I was gonna sleep on the couch, but he was really drunk and wouldn't let me go!"

"He... he made you sleep with him?!" Ken was horrified. He knew Taichi wasn't the most gentlemanly of their friends, but he hadn't thought he was capable of this!

"Yeah. But... it was nice, so I don't care." Daisuke said quietly, lost in his own thoughts.

"I... I have to go." Ken took a step back away from Daisuke. "I'm sorry, I forgot something at Yamato's place. I'll... I'll call you later!"

"Oh, okay. Seeya later, then!" Daisuke waved and ran off in the direction of his own apartment, wondering if he and Taichi would look as cute together as Ken and Yamato had. 

***

Yamato sighed and put the last cup into the dishwasher. Taichi had gone straight to bed after Ken and Daisuke had left, mumbling something about needing to clear his head. Straight to bed after Ken and Daisuke had left, _and_ after Yamato had changed the sheets, that is. "Still..." Yamato smiled and leaned against the counter, licking his lips slowly, tasting the leftover Ken flavor. "I hope he's still asleep when Ken calls." He shut the dishwasher and turned it on, grinning. 

"Yamato!" Ken's voice came from the front door, followed by a panicked knock.

"Ken?" Yamato pulled off his old pink apron and tossed it over the back of a chair, going to open the door. "What's wrong?"

It took Ken a minute to catch his breath before he could reply. He'd run back as quickly as he could. "Is... Is Taichi-san still here?"

Yamato nodded and led Ken into the apartment. "What happened?"

Ken's eyes flashed angrily and he fisted his hands. "He... Daisuke told me they slept together."

Yamato's eyebrows raised. "Oh."

"He said Taichi-san _made_ him sleep with him."

This time Yamato reacted, his eyes widening in concern. "Oh... oh! What... when? Last night?"

Ken nodded firmly. "He was drunk. Daisuke doesn't mind, but I think he thinks it meant something." 

"Well, for Taichi's sake, let's hope he's right," Yamato said quietly, rolling his sleeves up and walking swiftly down the hall to his bedroom. "Yagami Taichi! Get up!" he yelled, yanking the sheet out from under Taichi so he fell off of the bed and onto the floor.

"Ow!" Taichi winced, sitting up and rubbing his butt. "That hurt! What'd I do?!" Standing behind Yamato, Ken gave Taichi a look Taichi hadn't seen since the Kaiser was still around. He shuddered and gave Yamato a nervous look. "What?!"

"You have a _lot_ of explaining to do, Taichi. Daisuke says you *raped* him," Yamato said, his voice cold.

Taichi felt his mouth go dry, and his heart stuttered for a few beats. "He... he what?! But... no! No way! I did not!"

Ken picked up a large dictionary from Yamato's desk and threw it at Taichi's head. "Look it up, because you obviously don't know what that word_ means_."

  
Taichi was too shocked to doge properly, and the heavy book hit him squarely in the face. "Ow!" He rubbed his nose and shoved the book off his lap. "I'm tellin' you, I didn't do anything!"

"Then I suggest you go talk to Daisuke about this, Taichi. Go talk to him or explain what happened to _us_." Yamato folded his arms and gave Taichi the same look he got from his mother when he failed a major exam. This was bad.

"Er... but..." he paused, biting his lip. Telling them he didn't actually *remember* the previous night didn't seem like a smart thing to do, so he stood quickly and gave them a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it, I'll just go to his house and see what's going on... it's gotta be a big misunderstanding!"

"I certainly hope so," Ken muttered, his voice low and hard.

Taichi didn't bother with a reply. Instead, he ran past them, down the hall, out the front door. He was halfway to Daisuke's apartment when his stomach lurched with a sudden, horrible thought. 'Oh god... what if I *did*?!' 


	5. chapter 5

About Nothing

Chapter 5

"Taichi-senpai?" Daisuke asked, staring at the older boy with wide eyes. "Are you okay?" Slipping his left foot in and out of his 

house slipper, he wished he'd taken a shower or something instead of sitting around in his clothes from yesterday, clothes which 

probably smelled of beer - or worse - vomit.

Taichi just leaned against the doorframe, panting. He'd run all the way back to Daisuke's house without thinking, knocked without thinking, and now his brain was finally catching up with him only to let him know he wasn't sure what he was supposed to _say_. He ran a hand through his hair and tried to think clearly, but the panicked feeling in his stomach was doing a good job of preventing that.

"I thought you were going to take a nap. You just left, did you forget something?" Daisuke cocked his head to one side and watched Taichi with a confused expression.

"No," Taichi managed to mumble, finally catching his breath. "I needed to see you."

Daisuke's eyes lit up and he smiled, stepping back to let Taichi enter the apartment.

Taichi winced mentally, realizing how that had sounded, and made no move to enter. "I mean I need to talk to you about last night."

"Last night?" Daisuke's face turned a faint shade of red.

"Yeah, uh...I don't really remember most of it..."Taichi began, but he trailed off when the smile faded from Daisuke's face.

"You don't remember?" 

"Well... no! I remember! Just not the _little _details! ...Did you tell Ken the little details?" Taichi asked, mentally patting himself on the back for having cleverly avoided a more direct answer.

"No," Daisuke said, shaking his head. 

Taichi felt a great weight lift from his body, and he practically collapsed right there. Ken was just assuming things! Nothing had happened, it was all okay! 

"I didn't tell him the _details_, I told him everything." Daisuke paused and watched as Taichi paled, then turned an odd shade of green. "You aren't mad, are you? I didn't think you'd mind..."

"Mad? No! No, of course not. Uh... who else did you tell about... y'know...?" Taichi asked, finding it hard to speak with his throat closed up in fear.

"Just Jun-neesan," Daisuke said, smiling. "She was kinda upset, but I convinced her it was okay."

"Y-you did, huh? It was okay?" Taichi gulped hard, feeling lightheaded from the shock.

"Yeah! It's not your fault. You were drunk! You couldn't help it," Daisuke said. "But..." He paused and seemed to be struggling with the words. "I wish you'd try something like that when you _weren't_ drunk." 

Taichi found himself suddenly on the floor. He groaned unhappily. His ass would hurt from landing on it like that, but at least he hadn't landed on his face. 

  
"Are you okay?!" Daisuke kneeled down next to him, checking for any signs of injury. "You should be more careful..." 

Taichi shook his head slowly, staring blankly at the wall. "I... uh... you _want_ me to do that again?"

The smaller boy ducked his head and grinned, nodding slightly. "Yeah..." 

"...Oh." Taichi couldn't think of what he should be saying to make this okay. He wished suddenly that he'd taken Yamato with him. Yamato was always better at these sort of things. At the moment, though, Taichi couldn't think of what his friend would have told him to do. All he could think was, 'Run!' 

"You... don't want to," Daisuke said quietly, backing off and lowering his eyes to the floor. He stopped shuffling his feet around in his slippers anxiously, stopped even feeling especially anxious, and bit his lower lip. After a moment, he reached down to tug one of the slippers back into place. It was a good way of avoiding Taichi's eyes. He felt so stupid. Of course Taichi didn't want to kiss him. Of course. He'd been drunk. People did things they didn't mean when they were drunk.

Without thinking, Taichi winced and reached out, putting a hand on Daisuke's shoulder and looked at him firmly. "I didn't say that."

Daisuke flinched slightly when Taichi's hand rested on his shoulder, and he gave the older boy a searching look. What he saw seemed to depress him. "But it's what you meant." 

'Well, he's got me there. But I can't _tell_ him that... not after... I've gotta make it up to him.' Taichi grinned slightly and shrugged. "Nah. Actually, I thought maybe - if you're not _too _angry at me for everything - I could make it up to you."

"You don't have to make anything up to me! I'm not angry or anything!" But he was already smiling again, and sitting forward anxiously. "Make it up to me how?"

Taichi was unable to repress a laugh at the sudden change of mood. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. "Well, I could take you out."

Daisuke's mouth fell open and he gaped at Taichi. "Like, as in a _date_?!"

Chuckling, Taichi reached over and lifted Daisuke's jaw back into place. "Yeah, a date." He was going to say more, but he found it hard to speak with all of the air knocked out of him. It took Taichi a moment to get his bearings, but as he stared up at the ceiling he realized he was on his back, laying in the middle of the hall. Daisuke had positively pounced on him, and was now hugging him so tightly that Taichi wondered if his ribs would be bruised.

"When? Now?!" Daisuke rested his chin on Taichi's chest and grinned up at him happily. 'The cookies _worked_!'

Sitting up with some difficulty, Taichi pried Daisuke off of himself and put some distance between them, but couldn't help smiling back at the younger boy's enthusiasm. "I'm not exactly dressed for a date," Taichi said, indicating his dirty clothes. "Most of the good restaurants don't like when you start attracting flies."

Daisuke shook his head and smiled wider. "It's fine, you look great! We don't have to go anywhere fancy... burgers would be good."

"You don't want an expensive dinner? What about one of those romance movies?"

Wrinkling his nose, Daisuke shrugged. "If you _want_ to do something like that. But... isn't there an action movie we could go see or something?" Quickly, he continued, "It's just... those chick flicks are usually kinda boring, but if you like them-"

"Yeah... I think so, too." Taichi felt a sudden urge to hug Daisuke, but shoved the thought aside. Still, he couldn't believe he wasn't going to have to put on the whole dating _act_. 'Hell, I might even enjoy this. It's just Daisuke, but at least I won't have to sit through some stupid movie and pay a whole week's food budget for a fancy dinner.' "But look... let's do it tomorrow. I'm still pretty tired." Taichi stood and reached out to help Daisuke up before continuing. "I'll come get you tomorrow around noon, okay?"

Daisuke hand was clutching Taichi's tightly, and the smile on his face was wide and bright. "Okay!"

In retrospect, Taichi would realize that what he did next probably wasn't the smartest move, but at the time it seemed totally natural. After all, it wasn't some weird stranger, it was _Daisuke_. They'd been friends since they were kids, and Taichi had always enjoyed teasing his friends - especially Daisuke. So he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Daisuke's gently without thinking much of it. "See you tomorrow, then." Taichi turned and walked away, waving over his shoulder.

What he didn't see was the way that Daisuke was still frozen in the hall, his lips parted and his eyes unfocused, ten minutes later.

***

"I can't believe you've got a date," Yamato said from behind his newspaper. Yamato was sitting at the table, and Taichi was standing next to it, foot propped up on its surface so he could tie his shoe easily. Yamato had given up telling him not to put his feet up on things long ago.

  
"What's so unbelievable about that? I get dates! I get lots of dates when I want them." Taichi stood and grabbed the car keys off the table.

"And you're taking _my_ car? No way. Not until you tell me who this date is _with_. And how you could do this after what you did to Daisuke." Yamato gave his friend a cold look.

"I told you already, it's all cleared up. I didn't _rape _him." '...Technically. Seems it was pretty mutual, so I'm not _lying_,' Taichi thought. "Anyway, Daisuke's the one I'm taking out." He grabbed the newspaper from Yamato and found the entertainment section, looking for the movie listings. There was a long silence from Yamato's end of the table, and when Taichi looked up, his friend was just staring at him blankly. "What?"

"You're taking out _Daisuke_?"

"Yeah, sure. Why not? It's not like it's a big deal or anything," he said, shrugging and setting the newspaper down. "I'll buy him dinner, treat him to a movie, and we'll be even." Taichi winced, realizing the expression on Yamato's face was one that meant only one thing: Taichi had done something stupid.

"Even for what? You're just going to blow him off after this?" The blond's tone was disapproving.

"Even for barfing all over the place, that's all! And what'dya mean, 'blow him off'?" Taichi asked, dropping his foot to the floor and shoving his hands into his pockets nervously. 

Yamato sighed in exasperation. "You still don't get it, do you?"

"Get what? What's to get?! He seemed to like the idea just fine."

"Of course he was happy about the date, you idiot! He _likes_ you."

Taichi blinked at his friend confusedly. "...Whatcha mean?"

"I mean, he made you cookies and took care of you and let you do _whatever_ it was you did to him, and now he's _happy_ about a date? After all that? He likes you."

"I already told you, I didn't _do _anything! And he doesn't _like _me. He's just..."

"Madly in love?" asked a voice from the guest room where Yamato had been sleeping. He'd been smart enough to know it was better to give up his own bed than let Taichi have the guest room, considering everything in there was still brand new and had cost a pretty penny. Taichi was far too good at 'breaking things in', as he put it. Yamato preferred to call it just 'breaking things'.

Taichi turned and gaped at the half-dressed Ken that had appeared there. The boy's dark hair was tussled and messy, and he was wearing a long t-shirt and what appeared to be nothing else. Taichi hoped he at least had underwear on underneath.

"...Ken?"

The younger boy folded his arms and scowled at Taichi. Taichi, in turn, couldn't help but laugh. There was no way he was going to take him seriously looking like that.

"Taichi! Listen to him, okay? He _is_ Daisuke's best friend," Yamato said, sounding annoyed.

"But... but _look_ at him!" Taichi said, biting down a laugh. " He looks like a five-year-old waking his mom with a bad dream. You're such a cradle-robber, Yamato."

"_I'm_ the cradle robber? At least I didn't _rape_ him," Yamato said tersely, blushing a bit in embarrassment.

"And I didn't rape _Daisuke_, so drop it!" Taichi said, getting defensive.

"My point is that Daisuke's been in love with you almost as long as I've known him. If you go on this date with him, it had better be because you like him back." Ken came over and sat next to Yamato at the table and gave Taichi a dark look. "If you're doing this as some sort of reparation, don't. It'll just hurt him more."

"I... I never said I was doing it for that!" Taichi said defensively. "And what are you talking about?! He's not in _love_ with me! That'd be weird! I woulda noticed."

"That's bullshit, and you know it," Yamato said. Taichi shut his mouth instantly. When Yamato talked like this, it was best just not to argue. "Even I've noticed it, Taichi. I thought it was just a crush, but..."

"He loves you," Ken finished. "If you go on this date with him and you don't feel anything for him you'll break his heart. And if you break his heart..."

Taichi forced a grin and stepped back a few steps, nodding. "Yeah, yeah. I know. You'll kill me. I get the picture, okay? You guys are overreacting! It's no big deal." He backed out the door, grinning nervously. "It'll go fine, you'll see!" Taichi quickly closed the door behind himself before Yamato or Ken could say anything.

Yamato stood and gathered up the discarded pieces of newspaper before frowning at the dirt on the floor. "The least he could do is not wear his shoes in the house."

***

Taichi found himself once again at Daisuke's door, and took a moment to straighten out his shirt before knocking. He'd worn his nicest pair of jeans - the only ones without holes - and a short-sleeved red button-up shirt his mom had gotten him a while back. The look was a carefully chosen casual one, and anyway, he felt more comfortable than he would have in fancy stuff. 

'Those guys are wrong. They don't know what they're talking about. Sure, Daisuke seems like he likes me _now_, but we had sex! That's all it is. He'll get over it once he realizes I'm the same old Taichi I've always been. Daisuke's not gonna be weird. It'll be just like it always is when we hang out.' He knocked on the door loudly and stood back, feeling a slight nervousness in his stomach.

Daisuke opened the door and grinned, glancing up and down Taichi's body quickly and cocking his head appreciatively at his attire. He'd been worried he was supposed to dress up, but he didn't really own anything he could have worn that was nicer than his black slacks and dark blue top. He figured that was about as neutral as he could get, and the top was a boatneck so it would be cool enough even though it had long sleeves. It was getting warm out, after all.

Taichi tried to just glance at Daisuke's outfit, but he got stuck around his neck. There it was, out in the open like that. Taichi stared for a long moment before looking back up at his face. 'Huh. Didn't realize I had a neck fetish. Learn something new every day...'

"...Taichi-senpai?" Daisuke tugged on his left sleeve nervously. 'What's he staring at? Maybe I shoulda worn something else after all...'

"Huh? Oh! Oh, sorry. Just, uh... distracted." Taichi grinned and held out his hand. "Ready to go?" 

  
Daisuke blinked at the hand, then took it and smiled. "Sure. Where're we going?"

"Well, I checked the showtimes and I think if we leave now we can make it to the two o'clock show," Taichi said, leading Daisuke down the hall. 

"What're we gonna see?" Daisuke asked, a slight bounce in his step. 'Best day ever already, and we haven't even done anything yet!'

"Oh, the only action movie playing was the new James Bond movie, "The Spy is Forever". Figured that'd be cool. Lots of explosions and stuff." Taichi glanced at Daisuke and grinned, finding his eyes once again attracted to the bare neck and then to the bit of shoulder showing as the neck of the shirt slipped to the side. He reached over and tugged the shirt back into place, carefully avoiding the distraction.

Daisuke blushed as Taichi's hand brushed over his bare skin and he smiled. "Sounds great! I love those movies." 

Taichi glanced at his watch as they walked down the stairs and out onto the street. "I think we have time to get a burger or something. You hungry?"

"Always!" Daisuke squeezed Taichi's hand and smiled so hard his face ached. "Burgers sound awesome. Teriyaki burgers... with fries!" Daisuke licked his lips and a loud grumbling sound came from his stomach.

Laughing, Taichi ducked down slightly to kiss the top of Daisuke's head. "You're cute, y'know that?"

Daisuke felt a slight shiver go down his spine and laughed nervously. "Me? Nah."

"No, really. You are." Taichi grinned and opened the passenger-side door to Yamato's car. "C'mon, let's hurry so we have time to eat."

Daisuke slipped into the car and buckled himself in. Taichi went around and got into the driver's seat and started the car, pulling them out onto the road and driving towards the nearest burger joint. Daisuke leaned his head back against the seat and sighed contentedly. 

"You okay?" Taichi asked as they drove down the street. "You're all... quiet."

"I'm great." Daisuke said, turning his head to stare at Taichi happily.

Taichi shifted slightly and glanced at Daisuke nervously. "You're, uh... staring at me."

"Yeah," Daisuke said, his grin widening. "We're on a date. I can do that."

"Guess that's fair," Taichi mumbled, trying to ignore the distinct feeling of being watched. 

The rest of the drive was made in silence, Daisuke's eyes fixed firmly on Taichi, and Taichi's on the road. When they pulled into the parking lot of the fast food place, Taichi breathed a sigh of relief before getting out of the car. Daisuke followed him quickly and they went into the building without saying anything.

'Okay, so maybe this is kinda weird,' Taichi thought, watching Daisuke quietly as they waited in line. 

"Now you're staring at _me_," Daisuke said, poking Taichi's chest. 

"Yep. We're on a date, I can do that." Taichi smirked and lowered his eyes to Daisuke's neck again, enjoying the view. 'Wouldn't mind getting to taste that...' He shook his head and fixed his eyes back on the overhead menu. 'No, no. This date is to make up for that kinda stuff, I can't try anything. Even if he _did_ say he wanted me to do it again...'

Daisuke ordered his meal from the menu and reached into his pocket for his wallet before suddenly being pushed aside by Taichi, who ordered his before Daisuke could pay. "Uh..." Daisuke stood there, wallet in hand, feeling awkward.

Taichi handed the clerk his money and led Daisuke away to wait for their food. "You're not paying. _I_ asked _you_ out, right? So I pay."

"You really don't have to-"

"Yeah. But I did, so deal with it." Taichi smirked and ruffled Daisuke's hair affectionately. "No one pays for me on a date."

Daisuke pouted and shook his head, trying to fix his hair. "What if I asked _you_ out next time? Then can I pay?"

Taichi tensed slightly. 'Next time?' "Er... maybe." He grabbed the tray of food that was set in front of them, thankful for the distraction. "C'mon, let's eat."

They sat at a small table near the window and separated their food out, neither bothering to speak as they inhaled it. Taichi finished his off only seconds before Daisuke and the two boys leaned back in their chairs, patting their full stomachs. 

"That's better," Taichi said, feeling much more relaxed now that he was full.

"Mmmm... I like food," Daisuke said, licking his lips and completely missing a bit of ketchup at the side of his mouth.

"You missed a spot," Taichi said, pointing.

"Here?" Daisuke licked his mouth again, getting only half of the ketchup off his mouth. 

"No, here." Taichi reached over and wiped the sauce off with his finger, and with a mischievous grin, brought the finger to his mouth and sucked on it. "Mmmm... Daisuke-flavored sauce." The slight embarrassment Taichi felt was well worth the bright red color the other boy turned. "C'mon, we've gotta go now if we're gonna make it to the movie."

Daisuke stood and followed Taichi back to the car, wishing he could stop blushing for even a moment.

***

Eyes wide, hand clenching Daisuke's, Taichi wondered what the hell he'd been thinking. 'Good one, Taichi. Let's see a James Bond movie! They're full of SEX! Great thinking...' He chucked the empty popcorn bag into the trash can to his left as the two boys left the theatre. Daisuke was still on a high from the action, babbling on about the awesome explosions that Taichi normally would have appreciated.

But this time he was much more aware of the sex scenes interspersed into the movie. It didn't help that through the whole movie he could see Daisuke out of the corner of his eye. Daisuke, with that damn shirt, with that tempting bit of skin peeking out from the neck. He'd never gone to see these movies with anyone dressed like _this_ before, and he thought next time he'd be safer with the stupid chick-flick after all.

"And then that car exploded and whoa, the special effects were so _awesome_, and then Bond is all, 'I'm James Bond, my car exploded with me inside it but I'm not even singed 'cause I'm the man.' And he shoots the other guys, and..." Daisuke trailed off and gave Taichi an odd look. "Are you okay? You look kinda... out of it."

"Me? Yeah! I'm fine! Fine, totally completely fine," Taichi said, annoyed at how anxious his voice sounded. 'Sure, he notices all the cool effects and all I can think about is the stupid sex scenes. Man, that girl was hot, though... I need to get laid. And SOON. 

Daisuke frowned and ducked his head slightly. "Aren't you having fun?"

Taichi noticed with some frustration that in that position the neck of the shirt dangled down just enough to see Daisuke's collarbone, and he couldn't help but think about what the smaller boy's reaction would be if he nibbled on it, or just above it, at the nape of his neck. "...Yeah... lots of fun," Taichi mumbled.

"You're bored," Daisuke said, letting go of Taichi's hand and looking away.

Taichi chuckled. "That's really not the problem." 'The problem is that every time you move I get to see a little more of that lovely caramel-colored skin of yours... and I keep wondering if you _taste_ as good as you _look_... augh! This is so stupid, it's just Daisuke. I'm not supposed to want to sex up Daisuke. This is all that stupid movie's fault!'

"Then what is? Did I do something stupid again? I do stupid stuff a lot." Daisuke wrinkled his nose and stuck the tip of his tongue out.

Unable to stop himself before he acted, Taichi ducked down and captured Daisuke's tongue with his mouth, sucking on it lightly and pressing his lips to the other boy's. 

Daisuke's first reaction was to pull away, but Taichi's hands had found their way to his sides and were holding him firmly in place. Then he realized they were still in the lobby of the theatre and people were staring. Fortunately, Daisuke really didn't _care_ if they stared. He reached up and caught his hands into Taichi's shirt and shut his eyes, kissing back and enjoying the way Taichi's mouth tasted, brushing his tongue against the older boy's. 

They stayed that way until Taichi began feeling two sensations. First, the loss of oxygen to his brain, and second, the sudden tightness of his pants. He wrenched away from Daisuke, panting slightly and licking his lips. 'He _does_ taste good...'

Daisuke was breathing heavily and biting his lower lip, only enhancing the swollen red color that had overtaken them. "Um..." He grinned nervously. 

Taichi took a deep breath, hoping the oxygen would return his blood to his brain. "Look, I'm really sorry... I shouldn't be-"

"You wanna come over?" Daisuke interrupted, quickly and before he could lose his nerve. "My parents won't be home."

Taichi felt his mouth go dry and he stared at the younger boy for a long moment, weighing the possibilities. 'Get laid and don't fix anything, and if Ken's right it'll just make him like me more... or say no and end this now.' "Okay," Taichi said, nodding. "If you want." 'I'll worry about all that other stuff later. Ken's not right, anyway.'

Daisuke smiled and opened his mouth to respond, but got cut off.

"Do you boys mind?" The theater manager had approached them and was now standing only a few feet away, glaring harshly at them. 

Daisuke's eyes went wide and he had a guilty look on his face. Taichi frowned, turning to the manager. Daisuke had been happy, damn it. He didn't want that messed up now. "Fuck off." Taichi took Daisuke's hand and led him out of the theater, ignoring the way everyone - including Daisuke - stared at him for the retort.

***

The drive back to Daisuke's house had been silent. Daisuke wasn't sure what he was supposed to say, and anyway, he was nervous. He hadn't been thinking when he'd invited Taichi over, and he wasn't sure exactly what he was going to end up doing - although, if the stories about Taichi's life at college were true, he had a pretty good idea.

Taichi, on the other hand, had adjusted the rearview mirror so he got a nice view of Daisuke's torso - including that lovely bit of shoulder that was bared - the whole way back. He tried to think of the last time he'd had sex and realized it had been months. With school and working a part time job, he hadn't had time to date. 'Well, that explains the stupid dreams,' he thought.

They were quiet and well-behaved as they walked up the stairs to Daisuke's floor. Taichi didn't make a move to touch Daisuke the whole way up, and Daisuke was so distracted by the anticipation that he was finding it difficult just to walk correctly. They entered his apartment and slipped off their shoes, and Daisuke turned to ask Taichi if he'd like some soda or something when he suddenly found the himself yanked onto the sofa and into Taichi's lap.

Taichi's hands were already snaking around Daisuke's hips and sliding under his shirt when Daisuke opened his mouth to speak. "Taichi-sen -" Daisuke tried to say, but was cut off by a hungry kiss. He let out a surprised squeak, but soon relaxed into Taichi's arms. The older boy's lap was warm and he scooted forward until their chests were pressed together, his hands resting on Taichi's shoulders, clinging to Taichi's shirt tightly. 

Taichi's hands, however, were busy sliding up Daisuke's back over his shirt, feeling through the thin cloth, then up over the boy's shoulders, and onto the exposed skin. Taichi let out a soft moan when his fingers found the soft skin of Daisuke's throat, and he slid his fingers up and down the back of his neck slowly. 

Daisuke's eyes went wide at the sound Taichi made, then slid closed again at the feeling of the older boy's warm hands on his skin. He broke the kiss to catch his breath, feeling dizzy. The deeper he breathed, the more he could smell Taichi, and the more he could smell Taichi, the deeper he had to breathe. He felt drunk on the scent of the older boy, and let his head roll back slightly, trying to focus his eyes on the ceiling. 

Taichi had been distracted, staring at the way his hands looked in contrast to Daisuke's skin tone, wondering how the smaller boy kept his skin so soft, when his head suddenly moved out of the way and his neck was exposed. Growling softly, Taichi leaned forward and bit into the nape of Daisuke's neck, sucking on the spot hard, his eyes half-closed. He tasted faintly of sweat, and under that was something Taichi didn't recognize. 'That must be how he tastes,' Taichi thought, letting out another small growl. 

Daisuke tensed at the feeling of teeth and held his breath, feeling his heartbeat speed up. The possessive growls coming from Taichi made him shudder, but the pinch of teeth on his skin combined with it to make it more than a little frightening. "Taichi-senpai... ow..." Daisuke said as Taichi bit down a bit harder, surprised to hear how husky his own voice sounded.

Sitting back, Taichi stared confusedly at the angry red marks left by his teeth. He'd gotten a little carried away, he thought, and ducked back down to kiss and suck on the sore spot apologetically. 

Daisuke relaxed and let out a long shuddering breath. This was much better, and he felt his body responding again. He began unconsciously grinding into Taichi, his hands sliding down Taichi's chest and finding the bottom of his shirt. He slipped his fingers underneath, tracing them softly above the waistband of Taichi's pants, enjoying the soft warmth of Taichi's skin. "Taichi-senpai..." he breathed, this time chuckling at the sound of his own voice. 'I sound like someone in a porno...'

Taichi moved his way up Daisuke's neck to his jaw, then back down again, covering every bare inch of skin with light kisses. "Mmmm..." He tried to say something, but decided that was clear enough, and ground up into Daisuke, responding to the movement coming from Daisuke.

Eyes wide, Daisuke sat back quickly, surprised by the sudden feeling of Taichi pressing into him, even through their clothes. "Wha... Taichi-senpai..." Daisuke panted.

"Shh, just relax," Taichi mumbled, pulling him back against him to do it again, and groaned quietly. 

Daisuke shut his eyes tightly, trying to do just that, but felt himself just getting tenser and tenser. "But..." He tried to form a sentence, letting it trail off into a confused moan.

Taichi chuckled and moved to the other side of Daisuke's neck, sucking on a particularly tempting spot before responding. "You said you wanted me to do this when I wasn't drunk, right?" Taichi's voice was low and breathy, and he nibbled gently down onto Daisuke's exposed shoulder. 

"I... I said... I wanted you to _kiss_ me..." Daisuke mumbled, confused.

Taichi kissed the boy's shoulder a few more times before that thought finally made it through the haze to his brain, and he sat up abruptly, looking Daisuke in the eyes. "You said you wanted me to do _it_ when I wasn't drunk."

Daisuke swallowed hard and looked at Taichi nervously. "Yeah... like last night when you tried to kiss me."

"What do you _mean_, when I tried to _kiss_ you? You mean when we had_ sex_, right?" Taichi felt his arousal slowly fading into a dazed, confused feeling. Wasn't that what Daisuke had meant?

The younger boy's eyes went huge and he stared at Taichi for a long moment before responding. "We didn't have sex." 

A wave of relief passed over Taichi, quickly followed by a distinct feeling of anger. "What do you _mean_, we didn't have sex?!"

"We didn't! You tried to kiss me and I wouldn't let you!" Daisuke said, tensing up. 

"What the... then why did you tell Ken I raped you?!" Taichi half-yelled, dropping his hands from Daisuke's body.

"I didn't! I told him you slept over and we slept in together in the same bed, that's all! Maybe he misunderstood..." Daisuke frowned, now understanding Ken's strange reaction. 'Oops...'

Taichi shoved Daisuke unceremoniously off his lap and onto the couch next to him. "You mean all this was for _nothing_?!"

The last remnants of hope left in Daisuke were suddenly shattered and he sat there staring at Taichi uncomprehendingly. "Nothing?" For a moment, he felt like crying, but that was soon replaced by anger. "What do you MEAN, it was for nothing?! You mean all this, the kisses, the date... THIS was just 'cause you thought you _raped_ me?!"

"Gods, I can't believe I listened to Ken and Yamato on this. How stupid, of COURSE I would have known if I'd DONE anything." Taichi shook his head and stood, straightening his clothes out. "Well, at least I don't have to worry about that now."

"Wha... you don't have to worry...?" Daisuke stood and stared at Taichi coldly before punching him in the face as hard as he could.

Taichi stumbled backwards a few steps and clutched his cheek, wincing. "The hell was that for?!"

"You were just doing this out of _guilt_! You don't like me at _all_, do you?!" Daisuke clenched his hands into fists and considered hitting Taichi again.

"What the hell are you talking about? Of course it was 'cause of that!" Taichi rubbed the sore spot and frowned. "I'm going to have a bruise."

"You don't even _care_, do you?! After kissing me and asking me out and acting like this super nice guy... all that was to clear your conscience! You didn't even _think_ about how I'd feel!"

"How you'd... you mean you DO like me?! Oh, man, I can't believe they were right about _that_..." Taichi rolled his eyes. "Well, sorry. I didn't know."

"How could you not know?! I wouldn't have had _sex_ with you if I didn't like you, and that's what you thought we did! What kinda guy do you think I am? I guess I'm just too weak to get away from your drunken clutches, huh?" Daisuke laughed bitterly. "You probably _would_ have tried something if you hadn't passed out right away. You're really _not_ that impressive drunk."

Taichi glared angrily at Daisuke. "Well, it's not my fault you've got some kind of stupid crush on me! I was trying to do the right thing here, y'know!"

"What, by having sex with me?! Is that your solution for everything?!" Daisuke yelled, trembling. 

"Well, look at how you're dressed! Why'd you dress like a skank if you didn't want me to fuck you, huh?!"

"A skank?!" Daisuke looked down at his outfit, then back up at Taichi like he was crazy. "What are you _talking_ about?!" 

"Y'know what? Forget it." Taichi stormed to the door and shoved his feet into his shoes, grabbing the handle and then pausing, turning back to give Daisuke an expectant look. "Aren't you gonna say anything?"

"Just get out!" Daisuke yelled, throwing a couch pillow at him.

Scowling, Taichi slammed the door after himself and stomped down the stairs to the car. He got halfway back to Yamato's place before the anger faded and he realized what he'd just done.

**********

Notes and such:

Made up Bond movie title, yes. Because they're all a few years ahead of us and all, so this was gotten from a Bond movie title generator. D I think it worked fairly nicely. Although I was really fond of "You Only Never Die Twice Again".

"Jun-neesan" is what I opted with having Daisuke call Jun in this. This is totally my call, however, as all we ever hear him call her directly is "That girl", and "Aniki" which is sort of like a way of saying she's his older sibling but he doesn't acknowledge her as a relative. ^_^;; Both of these however are to other people (Takeru is one) and when she's not THERE. We don't know what he calls her to her face. Also, Daisuke uses much more polite speak in front of Taichi. So instead of just "That girl" he'd probably call her something a bit more normal, but still a bit distanced. So... in this case, "Jun-neesan" fit, I think. ^_^;; Yeah. "Neesan", if you don't know, means 'older sister' and is only somewhat polite. 


	6. chapter 6

Chapter 6

_"Soft... the sheets are soft, aren't they?"_

_"Silk..."_

_"I thought you'd like them."_

_"Taichi-"_

_"Shh..."_

_Soft, isn't he? And tastes good... _

_"Taichi-s-"_

_  
Frustration... why is he still talking? Better to keep his lips busy..._

_"Ta-"_

_Stop... don't talk now! Harder kisses, desperate kisses... biting his lip... his blood tastes coppery... just like his skin looks..._

"Wake up!" 

Taichi's eyes shot open, and he was panting. "Wha?"

"It's your stop, isn't it?" The businessman sitting across from Taichi smirked and nodded towards the window. "Didn't you say this was your stop?"

"My stop?" Taichi blinked and looked out the window. The train had stopped after all. He was back.

"Sorry for interrupting your dream. Must have been an interesting one, you were moving around a lot." The man looked amused.

Scowling, Taichi stood and grabbed his bag. "It was a nightmare." 

The sun was setting as Taichi stepped off the train, and the air was getting chilly. He shrugged on his jacket and shivered in the cool air, noticing how everyone else around him was wearing t-shirts. 'Well, they aren't all sweaty," Taichi thought, walking down the street, cursing his body's reaction to the strange dream.

It had taken a few hours to get home, although the trip wasn't actually that far. The bullet trains had all been booked when he'd gone to buy his ticket. After all, they advised that you buy tickets ahead of time. Taichi hadn't been planning on leaving so early. He'd taken a normal train instead, desperate not to return to Yamato's apartment after the dramatic exit he'd made.

Of course, Yamato wouldn't actually know where he was. It's not like he left a note. He'd just... left. After sitting in Yamato's car for about an hour parked outside his building - not that he'd admit it - feeling guilty. Then the guilt vanished and he was annoyed. Angry, even. None of this was his fault. Sure, he'd said some rude things. Sure, he hadn't meant to hurt Daisuke's feelings. But if the younger boy DID like him, and DID know him as well as Taichi thought he did, he should expect those sort of things, right? Ken had misunderstood and Yamato had helped back him up. Taichi had been trying to do the right thing. And for a while there, he really did enjoy it...

'But it's not my _fault_,' Taichi thought, turning a corner towards his apartment. 'He didn't have to go off on me like that. _Or_ hit me.' There was a faint bruise on Taichi's face and he could feel it aching slightly. Luckily his apartment wasn't far from the train station, so with his bag over his shoulder, Taichi began walking home.

His apartment was the same it had been when he left. He stepped into it and flipped on the light. His single bed, his laptop on his desk, his dresser... he didn't have much else. Still, it was home. Tossing his bag onto the floor, Taichi sat on the bed heavily and stared at the floor. The sun was almost completely down now, and the light coming in his window was a deep red. The room was quiet.

Until the phone rang, the room was quiet. Taichi jumped and stared at it nervously. Would it be Yamato calling to find out where he was? That would be okay. Unless he was calling to yell. Taichi wasn't ready to be yelled at again, yet. He needed at least a day between scoldings to recover.  Tentatively, Taichi picked up the receiver and answered.

"Hello?" 

"Taichi!" a high pitched female voice squealed out at him. "You have no idea how long it took to track down your number!"

Taichi frowned and tried to think of who this could be. "S'that so?" 

"Koushirou and I are in the neighborhood! You wanna go out for dinner?" 

'Koushirou and someone? Who would Koushirou be hanging out with that sounds like-' "Mimi!" Taichi said suddenly.

"That's me!" 

Frowning, Taichi looked around his room again. He really should study. Or at least rest. "Sure, I'll come. You wanna meet somewhere?" Then again, he needed to take his mind off things more.

"Yeah! Y'know the Italian place by the train station near your school?" Mimi asked, sounding thrilled. 

"Uh..." Taichi had to take a moment to place where she meant. Mimi was always a little vague with everything but fashion. Then she was much more detailed than necessary. Finally, he remembered the little restaurant. "Oh, yeah. I think so. See you there in... fifteen minutes?"

"Okay!" Mimi hung up before Taichi could respond.

***

"Taichi!" A pink blur threw itself at Taichi, and he stumbled back a few steps with the force of it. 

"Hi, Mimi," Taichi said, patting her on the head awkwardly. "Can you let me breathe now?"

"Sorry!" Mimi let go and stood back, smiling widely. "It's just been so long since I've seen you!" 

Taichi nodded. "Yeah, how long has it been?"

"Two years," a voice said from behind Mimi. 

"Koushirou!" Taichi smiled and yanked the shorter boy into a quick tight hug before stepping back and giving his friends a quick glance over. "So I gotta ask. What kinda coincidence is it that the two of you are here _together_?" 

Mimi's face brightened and Koushirou went slightly pink and averted his eyes. "We're dating!" Mimi said happily.

Taichi didn't _mean_ to laugh. It was just so hard not to. "You're kidding!" he finally managed to say in between bursts of laughter.

"No... what's so funny?" Mimi pouted. 

"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all." Taichi caught his breath and gave Koushirou an amused look. "When did THIS happen?"

"Our colleges were near each other," Koushirou said, scuffing a foot against the ground embarrassedly.

"And we started hanging out, and Koushirou has turned out to be _such_ a gentleman!" Mimi said, grabbing the red head's arm and leaning her head on his shoulder. "And it was nice to have someone I didn't have to talk to in English." Mimi's smile faded just slightly. "And anyway... it's hard to date someone that wasn't there." 

Koushirou smiled at Mimi and let her hang off of him, and Taichi thought about that. He knew right away what she meant. The Digital World. The Chosen Children always felt distanced from other people their age because of what they'd been through. 

"Hey, that's cool." Taichi smiled at them both. "Have you told any of the others yet?"

"No, we just got back," Koushirou said, shifting his weight to compensate for how Mimi was leaning on him.

"We're on vacation!" Mimi stood suddenly, leaving Koushirou to wobble for a moment before catching his balance. "We just got in and decided we should come see you before going to Odaiba, since you're HERE and all! Have you been back to Odaiba recently?"

Taichi felt his throat close up and his back tense. "Yeah, I just got back." He turned and began walking into the restaurant, hoping to change the subject somehow.

Mimi chased after him with Koushirou close behind. "So, how is everyone?"

Taichi shrugged. "They're good. Yamato and Ken are dating."

Mimi squealed and Taichi winced. "They're _dating_?! That's so cute! Ooh, who else is dating now? I want all the gossip!"

Koushirou walked ahead to the front desk, and a waitress led them to their table. Taichi sighed and sat across from the couple, wishing the booth didn't seem so _empty _with just him in it. "I don't think anything else is new, Mimi. Don't you talk to Sora every chance you get?"

Mimi nodded and leaned forward anxiously. "And I heard a rumor about you!"

Koushirou gave Mimi a look and shook his head. Mimi frowned at him sharply before turning back to Taichi. 

'Ugh, they've already got that weird psychic couple thing down where they can read each other's eyes and stuff. I hate that.' "A rumor?"

"Yep!" Mimi grinned playfully and said in a sing-song voice. "Daisuke made you cookies!"

Taichi shut his eyes tightly and sighed. This was just what he didn't want to talk about. "How the hell did you hear about that?"

Koushirou looked apologetic and mouthed 'Sora' at him before Mimi could say anything. 

"How'd she know?" Taichi asked, tensing up.

"She's the one that told him to make you cookies!" Mimi sat back, looking thoughtful. "She said he showed up at his house all worried and anxious. He wanted to impress you or something, I guess." Mimi paused to giggle before continuing. "It's so cute!"

His hands clenched into the table, Taichi felt his stomach tighten. "It was Sora's idea?"

"Yep! And I didn't get to hear how it went!" Mimi cocked her head and arched an eyebrow. "Soooo?"

Koushirou watched as Taichi's expression hardened into anger, then softened into guilt. "Mimi, maybe we shouldn't-" 

"It's fine." Taichi interrupted him. "It didn't go so good. We got in a fight." Taichi shrugged and picked up his menu quickly, trying once again to change the subject. Had being in America actually made Mimi _more _prone to gossiping?

The table was silent for a long moment, and Taichi finally peered over the edge of his menu suspiciously. "What?" he asked, darting his eyes from Mimi to Koushirou and back.

Mimi was staring at him with a look of concern, and Koushirou looked slightly worried as well. "You rejected him?" Mimi asked. "Why?"

"I didn't _reject_ him! He just..." Taichi trailed off, rethinking the exchange from earlier that day. "I guess... maybe I kinda did. But he'll get over it. It doesn't matter." He tried to pick his menu back up, but Mimi snatched it away.

  
"It does so matter! He loves you and bakes you cookies and you just ignore it? How can you do that?!" Mimi looked like she was about to cry. "That's just _mean_!" 

Koushirou glanced around the restaurant, wondering how many people were being disturbed by the loud conversation, and also how long it would be before Taichi killed his girlfriend.

"It's not my fault I don't like him!" Taichi said without thinking.

"You don't?" Mimi frowned, peering at him suspiciously.

"No!"

"Why not?" 

"Because he's..." Taichi trailed off, trying to think of a good reason, or a way to put it that Mimi would understand. "He's too young."

"He's only three years younger than you, isn't he?" Koushirou asked, then shut his mouth quickly when Taichi glared at him.

"I guess. But-"

"And you both get along so well!" Mimi exclaimed, smiling. "See?"

"Yeah, whatever. I just can't see him like that," Taichi said stubbornly, feeling satisfied with that answer. 

"Oh. I get it." Mimi sounded disappointed. "I guess if you see him like a little brother or something... you wouldn't wanna _kiss_ him or anything, huh?" Mimi stuck out her lower lip and sighed. "Too bad."

Koushirou was saying something, Taichi was sure. But he wasn't listening. Instead, the minute Mimi said 'kiss' he remembered the way it had felt when he had kissed Daisuke, and all other thoughts were blocked out. The younger boy's lips had been soft, and his kisses were much more than distracting. Taichi felt a small pang of loneliness when he realized he wouldn't feel that again, and immediately gritted his teeth and tried to block out the feeling. "But I don't like him!" 

"Taichi?" Koushirou gave Taichi a worried look. "We changed the subject already..."

Taichi scowled and folded his arms, certain of the disbelief on their faces. "Yeah, well, maybe I wasn't _done_ with the subject," he said, turning to Mimi. "Look here, pinky. I might've enjoyed kissing him, and yeah! Maybe he _was_ really sexy in that outfit! And sure, the way he calls me 'senpai' all the time is kinda cute... and I do like hanging out with him and everything. But I do _not_ like him! Got it?!"

Mimi blinked at him curiously before collapsing into a fit of giggles. Koushirou gave her an affectionate smile and sighed, giving up on logic for the moment. "You are _too_ cute!" Mimi exclaimed, pointing at Taichi. "Ever heard of denial, Taichi?"

"I am NOT in denial!" Taichi said, standing quickly. "Forget it. I'm leaving. Talk to you later when you're less... stupid!" 

The night air was much colder than Taichi thought it should have been, and he walked quickly back to his apartment. It started to rain when he was only halfway there.

When he finally got home, he collapsed onto his bed and sighed. 'They don't know what they're talking about. I don't like Daisuke. I don't like _anyone_. Why would I like him, anyway? Just 'cause it felt pretty good to kiss him,' Taichi thought, licking his lips and shifting up higher onto the bed.

'It _did_ feel good, though. Kissing him and all... and his skin was really soft,' Taichi slid his eyes shut. 'Wish we'd gotten further at least... maybe at least gotten some clothes off or something. Been too long since I've gotten even that far with anyone. But maybe if I hadn't said anything...' Taichi rested his hands on his lower stomach and sighed heavily. 'He was already hard, and all I'd done is kiss him. Touch him a little... gods, if he was making those noises _then_, what would he have sounded like if we hadn't stopped?'

Taichi's right hand slid down his stomach further. 'He was making all those whimpery noises... I bet I could have gotten him a lot louder, though. I bet I could have gotten him to scream. I should have just pinned him to the couch... pinned him down and kissed him real hard. Then he couldn't have started talking and I wouldn't have said anything.' His hand slipped under the waistband of his pants and he sighed softly. 'I could have made him moan. Just hold him down and rip his pants off... and take him right there on the couch.' 

Taichi's lips parted and he heard himself moan softly. "Shit." He froze and looked down, finding his hand already in his pants, already stroking himself. "Damnit... I am _not_ going to do this. I don't like him. I _don't._" But when he tried to pull his hand away, it didn't respond. Instead, his mind was filled with images of Daisuke on his back, pinned beneath him, moaning 'senpai'. "...Damnit." 

Taichi shut his eyes and stroked himself harder, the images growing stronger. Daisuke pinned on his back, Daisuke's head rolling back to expose his neck, Daisuke stripped down completely, Daisuke's soft skin, his well toned chest... his legs parted, his well rounded ass, and his erection... hard just because Taichi was touching him. Hard because Taichi was inside him, fucking him. 

"Shit," Taichi hissed through his teeth, shuddering and arching his back, reaching his peak quickly, and a warm wave of pleasure washing over him. "Shit... Daisuke..."  

***

The phone rang. Taichi's eyes opened and he found himself laying in bed. The sheets were wet, and he vaguely remembered having walked home in the rain. Yet it was hot, why was it so hot if he was wet? Why hadn't he changed? An image of Daisuke flashed through his mind. Daisuke, with swollen red lips and a deliciously exposed neck. "Damnit," Taichi grumbled, turning his head to see a pile of used tissues on the floor next to his bed. "I _did_. _Damn it_."

The phone rang again. Taichi blinked at it in confusion. The heat wasn't going away. He shivered and reached for the phone. "Hello?"

"There you are!" Yamato's voice responded. "Where did you go? You didn't tell anyone you were leaving, you idiot, we were worried about you."

Taichi shook his head and wondered when the phone had gotten so heavy. "I had to come back." He yawned and stretched, his body felt achy and his throat was slightly raw. "I don't feel so good."

"You don't _sound_ so good, either. Did you get sick or what?" Yamato sounded more concerned than angry, and Taichi was thankful he'd escape his wrath for now.

"Nah, I'm fine." Taichi sniffled and pulled the blanket up around himself, shivering slightly. "So did you call just to lecture me or what?"

"I called because I was worried about you." 

"Yeah, you said that already." Taichi frowned and felt his forehead. It was hot, but then again, so was the rest of him. Well, except for his feet. Taichi stood and closed the window, deciding it was just because it was a chill night out.

"_And_," Yamato continued, "to tell you that you don't need to worry anymore."

"Worry? Why would I be worried?" Taichi sniffled and sat back down, tucking his feet underneath himself and making a mental note to clean his room so he could find his fuzzy wool socks.

"Because of Daisuke," Yamato said carefully. "He didn't tell us what happened, but I know _some_thing did."

"Eh," Taichi responded, shifting uncomfortably. He was achy. Maybe a trip to the public bath would help. Yeah, a nice hot bath... maybe that would distract him from those images that still weren't fading. 

"I didn't expect you to tell me. Either way, you don't have to worry." 

"You said that already, _too_," Taichi said, beginning to get annoyed. "Why do I not need to worry?"

"Because he's moved on." 

Taichi paused and shook his head, wondering if the rain water had leaked into his ears and damaged his hearing. "He's what?"

"He's moved on. Daisuke called Ken after we realized you'd left and asked for you. We told him you were gone, and he said to let you know that it's okay."

"Oh," Taichi said. "Okay... I guess."

"You don't sound as happy as I thought you'd be."

"No... I'm happy." Taichi frowned, wishing he was as certain as he'd been before that he didn't like the younger boy. "But I wasn't very nice to him..." Taichi mumbled.

Yamato sounded half-amused. "Daisuke's got a boyfriend."

Trying to jump up at the shock, Taichi's foot got caught on the blanket and he tumbled forward, right off of the bed, ending up with his feet in the air and his head on the floor, tangled in his blanket. "He's WHAT?!"

"Taichi? Taichi, are you okay?"

Taichi sat up and yanked the blanket from his head, putting the receiver back to his ear. "I've only been gone a day! How could he have a boyfriend already?!"

"Well, he said it was someone he'd dated before. He said he was sorry for bothering you and felt stupid for chasing after you for so long. I think he's grown up a lot." Yamato had to hold the phone away from his mouth slightly to muffle the amused tone in his voice. Taichi was so predictable. 

"But he _can't_! He has to wait at least a month! This is... he can't... I just..." Taichi stood and paced the floor of his room, the blanket wrapped around his shoulders like a cape. "How could he?!"

"Taichi, you rejected him."

"SO?! I thought he _liked_ me!" Taichi looked around his room, hoping for something to jump out at him and tell him what to do. 'This isn't fair. It's just not FAIR. He did something WEIRD to my brain and I can't concentrate on anything and... and he's got a new boyfriend?!' His gaze finally stopped on his bags and he nodded. "I'm coming back."

"What? Taichi, what about classes? Don't they start tomorrow?" Yamato sighed. "You just _left_, you can't just-"

"I'm coming _back_. I'll take the first train out and be there in a few hours."

"But Taich-" Yamato's voice was cut off as Taichi hung up the phone.

"Nobody messes with my head and then just _gets over me_, damn it. I'll show him," Taichi muttered, tossing the few items he'd unpacked back into his bags. "I'll go back there and show him just how great I _really_ am, and we'll see just how long this stupid 'boyfriend' of his lasts!" With that, Taichi was out the door and heading down the stairs to go to the train station. He forgot his coat.

**************

Author notes: Chapter 7 will be out soon-ish. ^_^ Also, if you haven't already and you like TaiDai coupling, check out the TaiDai haven, 'TaiDaied Love', at: www.taidai.lavieneko.com


	7. chapter 7

Translation note: In this chapter, I have Daisuke refer to Jun simply as 'that girl'. 

In the show we never actually hear him refer to her except in third person. When he refers to her he calls her 'aniki' and 'kono onna'. I chose to translate this just as 'that girl'. It's a distanced typically Daisuke-rudeness type of thing to say. However, Daisuke's speech is MUCH more polite to Taichi and probably most adults than he is to everyone else his age. Therefore, he would probably call Jun "Jun-neesan" or something similar to that when talking directly to Taichi. 

***

Chapter 7

Panting, Taichi reached the top step of Daisuke's floor. He cursed under his breath and leaned against the wall. The elevator might have been a good idea after all, but Taichi was so used to taking the stairs that he hadn't even thought of it. By the time he was halfway there and noticed how exhausted he was, it didn't seem worth stopping. But now his vision was going in and out of focus and he couldn't quite catch his breath.

'The hell's wrong with me? It wasn't that far,' he thought, staggering down the hall towards the door with the Motomiya nameplate. 'Whatever, I'm here now. Maybe it woulda helped if I'd eaten... did I have breakfast?' Taichi frowned and leaned against the door. 'No... no, I don't think I've ate since yesterday. Huh...' He wiped a hand across his forehead. 'Man, it's hot out here.' He dropped his bag, wondering what he'd packed that was so heavy.

Knocking on the door, Taichi tried to stand up straight. It wasn't until he heard footsteps coming towards the door that he froze up and thought, 'Wait... what the hell am I doing here?! What am I going to say?! Shit! What the hell was I thinking?!' The door opened and Taichi smiled quickly, half-frozen and wondering if he could run away in time to not be noticed. 

The boy that answered the door was about Taichi's height, somewhat pale, and had dark black hair that went down to his shoulders even in the ponytail he had it up in. His eyes were almost as dark as his hair, and flickered over Taichi as if unsure of what to make of him. Finally, he spoke, smiling politely. "Can I help you?"

Taichi's jaw dropped. "Who're you?!" 'Who the hell's this pretty boy?! Is he wearing silk?! That's _silk_! Sure as hell doesn't _look_ like a relative of Daisuke's, and Jun could never get a boyfriend like _this_.'

Seeming amused, the strange boy grinned and cocked his head. "I'm sorry, you must be Jun's boyfriend. She said he might come by. Come in, come in."

"_Jun's_-?!" Taichi exclaimed, horrified. "The hell- who ARE you?!"

"I'm Daisuke's boyfriend. And you are...?" the dark haired boy asked slowly, as if he thought Taichi had a mental disability.

"Daisuke's..." Taichi put a hand on the doorframe, leaning against it. He blinked hard at the strange boy in front of him, wondering why he couldn't keep him in focus. Everything was blurry and he suddenly felt lightheaded. "But..." Taichi wrinkled his nose, finding it difficult to form coherent thoughts. 'I shoulda eaten something...'

***

"- get some liquids in him or something. Are you supposed to call the hospital?! Soup! I could make soup!"

'Why the noise? Trying to sleep... head hurts.'

"Daisuke, he's fine. He just fainted. He'll probably wake up any minute now. Just make sure he gets some liquids and lays still. And... you might want to give him some painkillers, he's got a fever."

'Fainted? Who fainted? Fever? Hikari... Hikari used to get fevers. Hikari must be sick!' Taichi sat up abruptly, eyes wide. "Is she okay?!"

"Agh!" Daisuke jumped back from the bed, eyes wide. "T-Taichi."

"See? He's awake already." The strange dark haired boy kissed Daisuke on the cheek and stood. "I'll get some medicine."

Already getting out of bed, Taichi glanced around madly. 'Where the hell am I? Where's Hikari?!' "Is she okay or not?!"

Daisuke gulped and sat back up, peering at Taichi nervously. "Is who okay?"

"Hikari! Is she okay?!" Taichi sat back down abruptly and shut his eyes, panting heavily. "It's hot."

"Hikari-chan is fine. You fainted... and you're sick. Yuki's going to get you some medicine..." Daisuke moved back next to the bed and watched Taichi closely. 

"Oh..." Taichi lay back down and stared up at the ceiling. "Right. I came here." He turned his head to look at Daisuke and frowned. "Who's Yuki?"

Daisuke was silent for a long moment. "My boyfriend."

Frowning, Taichi shook his head. "I should sleep more. I don't like this fever. I don't..." He sighed, reaching for a blanket. "I'm tired."

"Take these first," Yuki's voice said softly. "They'll help." 

Taichi opened his eyes just enough to take the glass of water and pills, swallow them, and lay back down. He fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

***

"Owwww," Taichi moaned, rolling over and clutching his stomach. He blinked hard, his eyes adjusting slowly to the afternoon light coming in the window. "Ugh, sick. Sick... sick..." 

Daisuke looked up from his desk where he was bent over a book, pencil in hand. "Taichi?"

"Is he up?" Yuki's voice called from the hallway. He came into the room, carrying a bowl of soup. "Here, Daisuke's mom wanted me to give this to you," he said, holding the tray in front of Taichi. "You should eat."

Looking blearily up at Yuki, Taichi scowled. "You're Daisuke's boyfriend?" he asked in a weak voice.

"Yes, of course." Yuki smiled and sat the soup aside.

His smile faded quickly when Taichi lurched forward and threw up all over Yuki's legs and feet. The room was silent for a long moment as Taichi leaned there, catching his breath. Then he sat back up and took the glass of water sitting next to the bed to rinse his mouth.

Yuki stood frozen in place, arms stiff at his sides, staring down at the mess. 

Daisuke's eyes were huge and he looked from the mess back up at Taichi. "Are you going to do that again?"

Taichi grinned slightly. "It's good now." He rolled over, tucked himself back in, and fell back asleep, feeling much better than he had all day. 

***

When Taichi woke again, it was dark. He sat up gingerly and peered around the room. Daisuke's things were everywhere, but he couldn't find a clock. What time was it? There was someone on the floor under a blanket. Taichi moved closer to the edge of the bed and squinted. "Daisuke?" he guessed aloud, not entirely sure he wanted it to be. From this angle, he couldn't tell whether the someone under the blanket was alone.

Mumbling, Daisuke lifted his head from under his blanket and yawned. "Yeah?"

No, there was no one else on the floor with him. Satisfied, Taichi shrugged. "Nothing" The sick feeling had faded, but he still felt pitifully weak. He hated feeling weak. Looking back down, he found the bowl of soup still waiting for him. He picked it up and sipped it slowly. "Mmmm..."

Daisuke sat up and watched Taichi with a blank expression. "I can warm that up if you want."

"Nah. This's good." Taichi gulped down the rest of the bowl before setting it down and sitting back and finally taking a good look at Daisuke. He was wearing a dark gray t-shirt and matching sweatpants. 'No socks,' Taichi noted. 'Wonder if that means he doesn't wear underwear to bed, either.' He smirked. 'Must be getting better if I can think stuff like that.'

"Taichi?" Daisuke spoke in a whisper. There were bags under his eyes and he looked like he was still half-asleep. 

For the first time, Taichi noticed the lack of suffix on his name. He tried not to wince. "Yeah?"

"What are you doing here?" 

"I'm... not exactly sure," Taichi said, his voice dropping to a whisper to match Daisuke's. 

"Why'd you come back?" Daisuke grinned slightly. "Don't you know I hate your guts now?"

Taichi chuckled and tossed a pillow at Daisuke's head. "You know you missed me."

"You were only gone a day!" Daisuke's grin widened, his voice no longer so soft. 

"One _long_ day!"

"It wasn't _that _long," Daisuke said, leaning on the bed and grinning up at Taichi. 

"Long enough for you to get a boyfriend," Taichi said, his voice suddenly quiet again.

Daisuke stiffened, but didn't drop his gaze. "Yuki really likes me."

"Don't think he likes me much." Taichi smirked.

"People don't usually like when they get barfed on," Daisuke said, feeling guilty when he wanted to laugh at the memory.

"You didn't care when I was drunk and barfed," Taichi said smugly. 

"You didn't barf _on_ me. Doesn't count," Daisuke said, thinking that he still wouldn't have minded much. "Anyway, it's just puke. Mom helped me clean it up."

"Is he gone?" Taichi asked, looking to the sleeping bag set up on the floor.

"Yuki? Yeah. He had to go home," Daisuke said, sitting back. "Your showing up really messed up our date, y'know. Ended up taking care of you all day instead of going to the movies."

"Oh," Taichi said, trying to hide his grin. "Sorry," he said, clearly not meaning it.

"No, you're not," Daisuke mumbled, laying back down.

Taichi scooted over in the bed. "You can sleep up here, y'know. Your bed."

"No, you're sick. You need to rest or you'll end up fainting again."

Taichi frowned. "I didn't _faint_. Fainting's girly. I passed out. And I meant that we could both sleep up here. Your bed's big."

Daisuke sighed and rolled over in the sleeping bag, his voice dropping back to the emotionless whisper from before. "I'm fine. Goodnight."

Taichi lay back down and stared at Daisuke's back, wondering what he could say that would fix things. 'Could tell him I want him to sleep up here. That I want him to dump that stupid Yuki guy... could tell him I'm sorry.' 

"Daisuke?" he asked, almost inaudibly.

"Mmm?" Daisuke mumbled, barely awake anymore.

When he opened his mouth to respond, Taichi meant to say something useful. He meant to say something daring, something that would get Daisuke to smile again. He liked when Daisuke smiled. It was a lot better than seeing him all curled up in the sleeping bag like that... that was too pitiful. When he opened his mouth, he meant to say something that would make everything okay again.

"Goodnight, Daisuke," was what came out.

"Night." 

*** 

Something was on his forehead. Taichi frowned and swatted at it, wishing whatever it was would go away and let him sleep. 

Daisuke laughed and put his hand back on Taichi's forehead. "I'm checking for fever, relax."

Taichi opened his eyes to see Daisuke's face inches from his own. The younger boy's gaze averted quickly and Taichi frowned, remembering.

"Your fever is gone," Daisuke said, pulling his hand away.

Taichi reached up quickly and caught Daisuke's wrist. The way the younger boy flinched made Taichi feel guilty, but he didn't let go.

"Taichi… let me go," Daisuke mumbled, blushing slightly. 

"Why are you dating Yuki?" Taichi frowned, tightening his hold on Daisuke's wrist. The question had been on his mind since Yamato had called him. Why would Daisuke move on so quickly? Was he so easy to forget?

"Wha- Taichi, let go!" Daisuke tugged on his arm. 

Taichi just held on tighter, determined to find out. "Tell me why you're dating him!" 

"Because he likes me! He's nice to me, okay?! Let go!" Daisuke yanked harder, beginning to look panicked.

'Is that all he wants?' Taichi thought, suddenly feeling heavy with guilt. He relaxed his grip and let his voice soften. "I'm sorry I wasn't." 

Daisuke froze. He felt the blush on his face darken and cursed himself silently for it. "You're sorry you weren't what?"

"Nice to you." Taichi let go of Daisuke's wrist, watching him closely. 

"Oh," Daisuke said, not moving. "I guess… it's okay. I mean," he said, laughing slightly, "it doesn't matter. I have Yuki now…"

Taichi scowled. "Yeah, about that-"

"About me, you mean?" Yuki asked, standing in the doorway. 

Daisuke jerked back quickly, turning to smile at Yuki. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Taichi smirked and cocked his head at Yuki innocently. "Why would we be talking about you?"

There was a long silence as the two older boys sized each other up. Daisuke clenched his hands into fists. His fingernails were digging into his palms painfully, but he barely noticed. The tension in the room was high.

Yuki finally looked away from Taichi. "Daisuke, can we talk alone for a moment?" 

"Sure!" Daisuke hopped up, glancing at Taichi one last time before following Yuki out of the room. He shut the door behind them.

Taichi was across the room instantly, pressing his ear to the door. 'Damn that girly-boy, what does he think he's doing now?!' He could just barely hear them through the door. 'What are they, whispering? Do they think I'd try to listen in on them?! Jeez, nobody gives me any credit!' 

After only a moment, the door opened, hitting Taichi in the head. He fell back onto the floor and moaned unhappily, rubbing the sore spot. 

Pausing to peer at Taichi in concern, Daisuke asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Taichi mumbled, standing up. 

Daisuke ducked his head. "Are you gonna be okay if I go out for a while?"

"Why? Where are you going?" Taichi sat on the edge of the bed and frowned. 'The hell is that Yuki bastard up to?!'

"Just… out." Daisuke turned and began pulling clothes out of the closet. 

Taichi scowled. "You're going on a _date_, aren't you?"

"Well… kinda. Yuki said you should be okay if you rest, and _that girl_ said she'd be here if you needed anything, so…"

It had always weirded Taichi out to hear Daisuke refer to Jun like that. His relationship with Hikari was so good, he couldn't imagine hating his sister to the point of refusing to use her name. Still, Daisuke wasn't usually that rude to Taichi _directly_. Daisuke's respect for him was fading, and fast.

"You're leaving me in Jun's clutches?!" Taichi put on his best pitiful expression and coughed weakly.

"She's taken care of me what I was sick," Daisuke mumbled, giving Taichi a slightly guilty look. "And I'll be back soon."

"Well… you can't go!" Taichi folded his arms, nodding. "You just can't."

Frowning, Daisuke gathered his clothes and shook his head. "I'm going, Taichi. You'll be fine. I can't ignore my boyfriend for you."

"Then dump him!" Taichi said, his voice coming off much more angry than he meant it to.

Daisuke's jaw dropped and he stared at Taichi incredulously. "What do you mean, _dump_ him?! He's the only guy who's _ever_ shown any interest in me! On top of that, he's really _nice_! He likes me, he wants to take me on a date, and I'm not going to screw this up just because you're jealous!"

"Jealous?!" Taichi felt his face go red. "I am NOT jealous! I just thought I was more important to you than some random guy you barely know! Anyways, _I _showed interest in you, didn't I?! You're the one that ran off and got some dumb ass boyfriend the minute I was out of sight!"

Daisuke's expression went cold. "You showed interest in my _ass_, and only when you thought I was an easy lay. And YOU are the one that ran off. So excuse me, but I'm going to go on a date with _my_ boyfriend and I'm going to have a good time _without_ you. If you think I'm going to stay here and take care of you when you don't even realize what an asshole you've been, you're dead wrong."

Taichi stared after Daisuke as he stormed out of the room, at a total loss for words. He didn't move until he heard the front door close. 

"The hell was THAT about?! That stupid… AGH!" Taichi grabbed a pillow and threw it at the wall as hard as he could. 

"Do you mind keeping it down in here?" Jun asked, poking her head in the doorway.

"YES! I do mind! Go away!" Taichi threw the other pillow at her.

Jun caught the pillow and grinned. "Someone's jealous!"

"I am NOT jealous! I'm just… just… pissed off!"

"Because you're jealous!" Jun tossed the pillow back onto the bed. "You deserve it, y'know."

"Deserve what?!" Taichi folded his arms and scowled at her. "What do you know, anyway?!"

"I know that you broke my little brother's heart. I know that you're being a stubborn jerk. I know that Daisuke's dating that _incredibly_ pretty guy because _you're_ too stupid to apologize to him. I also know," Jun said, entering the room and leaning against the wall. "that if you don't have a good explanation for everything, I'm going to kill you."

Taichi gaped at her. "What-"

"And don't even try to deny any of it, Daisuke told me everything after you ran away."

"I didn't run away! I just-"

"You ran off and left him! You led him on, molested him, and then broke his heart into a million pieces! And I _know_ it was that bad, because if it wasn't he wouldn't have been desperate enough to talk to _me_ about it! I helped him make those cookies, y'know. He was _really_ excited about finally telling you how he felt, and you screwed it up!"  

With every word, Taichi felt himself shrink further. "But..."

"But nothing. Now you have two choices, Yagami. You either prove to me that you like my brother and that you didn't do any of that on purpose, and I'll tell you where they went... Or you can say you don't like him and leave right now, and let him move on."

Silence settled over the room. Taichi felt the anger and frustration that he'd built up fade away, leaving only an unsettling feeling of guilt. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I have been a jerk, haven't I?"

"He's liked you since he was a little kid. He idolized everything about you, and even now that he knows what a jerk you really are, he still likes you. You really don't deserve him." Jun grinned smugly.

"This is why I hate girls," Taichi said, sighing. "So what do I have to do now?"

"Admit you like him," Jun said, smirking. 

"But I-"

"If you don't like him, then leave and never come back. And I'm not afraid to use the blackmail I have on you, y'know. All that time spent liking Yamato-kun and following him around... I got some _very_ interesting pictures of you at certain parties. I thought they might come in handy eventually."

Taichi paled, not quite certain what Jun was referring to. "So... so you want me to..."

"To make up your mind already! Jeez, are you _that_ much of a wimp?"

"I'm not a wimp! I just..." Taichi paused and frowned, thinking about the past few days. Coming back to Odaiba and seeing Daisuke for the first time, spending the afternoon with him, how much fun they'd had... how cute he was when he blushed. Taichi grinned slightly at the memory. 'Then we went on that date, and...' the grin faded quickly. "I was a jerk." He sighed heavily. "The only time I haven't had those stupid dreams was when we slept together..."

Jun's eyebrows arched. "Slept together?"

"Well, in the same bed! When I was drunk..." Taichi trailed off, remembering the party that had led up to all this. "He took care of me, didn't he?"

"Yeah. He brought you back here and stayed up half the night with you," Jun mumbled. "It was kinda cute."

"He is cute," Taichi said, grinning again. "He's cute, and he's sweet, and he likes me a lot more than I deserve." He looked up at Jun and his grin widened. "I don't want Yuki dating him. I don't want _anyone_ dating him except me. If he doesn't hate me already..."

Jun shook her head. "He's angry, but he's not very good at holding grudges."

Taichi stood, ignoring the short moment of dizziness that passed over him. "Tell me where they went so I can get him back."

"Does that mean you're done being stubborn?" Jun asked, cocking her head at Taichi suspiciously.

"Yeah, I'm done being a jerk, I'm even gonna try not to be stupid, now tell me where they went so I can apologize!"

Jun laughed. "I knew I liked you. He said they were going to get ramen. That's all I know."

"Ramen, huh? ...Yeah, okay, I think I know where to go." Taichi grinned at Jun. "Y'know, for a scary girl, you're not so bad."

Jun scowled and grumbled. "Get out of here before I change my mind and convince him to never speak to you again!"

Taichi smirked and ran out of the room, out of the apartment, down the stairs, and took off down the street as quickly as he could. 'He said that ramen place we went to was the best there was, and it was where they went on a date before… they've gotta be there.' 

Ignoring the exhaustion in his legs, Taichi ran down the street, thankful that the restaurant was so close, and began preparing himself for a confrontation. 'Gotta be impressive! Gotta show him that I'm serious about him and… gotta apologize for being an ass.' Taichi winced, not liking that part at all. 'It's worth it. If I apologize and tell him that I like him… he's gotta come back to me.'

Approaching the corner before the restaurant, Taichi was prepared for many things. Knowing that his life was going exactly how he wanted it not to, he was ready to see Daisuke and Yuki together, making out, or even having sex right there in public. Fists clenched, Taichi turned the corner and stopped dead in his tracks. 

He wasn't prepared for this. Daisuke was sitting against the side of the building, head in his hands. He was crying. 

Never one to know how to handle such open displays of emotion, Taichi approached Daisuke carefully, like you would a rabid dog. "…Daisuke?" he asked softly, reaching out hesitantly to touch his shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?"

The smaller boy looked up at Taichi with bleary eyes, his cheeks stained with tears. "Taichi? You should be resting." He wiped his face off on the back of his sleeve before standing. "I'm fine." He sniffled, trying to force a smile.

"No, you're not. Tell me what's wrong." Taichi said firmly, placing a hand on Daisuke's shoulder. "Something happened, right?"

"Yuki. He…" Daisuke took a deep breath and shrugged. "He said we aren't working out. He said I'm nice, but we can't date right now. Maybe another time…" Daisuke let out a shaky sigh. "Guess he didn't like me after all."

Taichi's resolve crumbled instantly. "But… you liked him."

"He was nice," Daisuke said softly, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Too nice to like me."

Hands clenching into fists, Taichi asked firmly, "Where does he live? Around here?"

"Yeah… just down the street in those red apartments… why?" Daisuke grinned slightly. 

"You go home. I'm going to have a _talk_ with him." Taichi said, turning towards the direction Daisuke had pointed in.

"Don't! Just… don't. It's fine." Daisuke grabbed Taichi's arm and tried to hold him back.

"No, it's not fine. That asshole hurt you, and I'm gonna kick his ass for it." Taichi turned and smiled at Daisuke. "And for what it's worth, I'm sorry for being an asshole, too. And I'm sorry for running off… but I'm not gonna let this guy do the same thing. Don't worry, Daisuke, I'll talk some sense into him." 

Before Daisuke could say anything else, Taichi was off and running. He stared after him, wondering what exactly Taichi planned on doing. 'He's crazy. He doesn't even know the apartment number, and…' Daisuke smiled gently, feeling slightly better. 'Thanks, Taichi-senpai.'

***

Next chapter coming soon, hopefully. The fic will probably be done in a chapter or two, and the next chapter will probably include some *adult* material. As FF.net doesn't allow that sort of thing, I'll remote link that part and those of you who want to avoid the porn can skip it. ^_~ 


	8. chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Red apartments," Taichi mumbled to himself, stopping to stare at a red brick building. "I guess he meant these." He walked through the front doors purposefully and began walking up the stairs before he paused. "...Wait a minute. Where the hell does he live?!" He sighed heavily and folded his arms. "I guess I could just knock on random doors..."

Reaching the second floor, Taichi stopped and stared down the hallway. There were 10 doors on this floor, and at least 20 floors in the building. He frowned. "This might take a while. Well... hope I have some luck." Turning to his left, he knocked on the door in front of him.

"Yes?" the young lady who answered the door asked. She had long dark hair and thick gaudy makeup.

"Do you know where Yuki lives?" Taichi backed up slightly, unsure Yuki would know this kind of person.

"Yuki?" The girl cocked her head and opened the door the rest of the way. She was wearing a see through robe.

Taichi did his best not to stare and backed away a bit more. "Aha... I guess you don't. Thanks!"

"You mean that cutie?"

"...I guess." Taichi frowned.

"Ah, yeah! Yuki lives on floor eight. And so _cute_, too!"

"...Thanks..."

"You don't wanna come in for some tea?" The girl batted her eyes at Taichi and opened the door wider.

Not sure how to take this obvious invitation, Taichi just smiled uncomfortably and shook his head. "Sorry, I'm really busy!" Then he turned and ran up the stairs. 'Man, I'm glad I was never a delivery boy, don't think I could put up with that kind of thing all the time.'

At the eighth floor Taichi paused and caught his breath. Ten doors were before him. Ten doors to pick from. Taking a deep breath, he shut his eyes and walked forward, spun in a circle, and stopped only when he began to feel dizzy. Opening his eyes, he was facing a door. "Good enough for me," he mumbled and knocked on it.

An attractive young man with dark green eyes and fair skin answered the door. "Hello..." the man said, leaning against the doorframe. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, do you know Yuki?"

"Ah, yes. Yuki lives across the hall." The boy pointed and grinned. "Are you a suitor, or are you free?"

Taichi paused. The man _was _cute. "...Sorry, I'm in a hurry." 'Got more important things to do right now...' Taichi turned and sweatdropped, waiting until he heard the door behind him close to step forward and knock on Yuki's door. No one answered. Knocking again, Taichi began to wonder if he hadn't gone straight home after all. Finally, the door opened.

"Who're you?" A little girl stood in the doorway and looked up at Taichi with large eyes.

"Uh... I'm looking for Yuki..."

"That's not who you _are_." The girl pouted and stomped her foot.

"I'm Taichi." 'She must be about four... I remember when Hikari was this age...'

"My name's Sachiko. I'm this old." She held up three fingers and smiled.

"Hey, you are a big girl." Taichi ruffled her hair and patted her on the head. 'Does Yuki have a kid, or what?'

"Excuse me, but who are you?" A female voice asked.

Taichi looked up to see a young woman yank the little girl back.

"He's Taichi-niichan!" Sachiko said happily, sitting on the floor beside her mother's feet.

"I'm just looking for Yuki." Taichi shoved his hands in his pockets and stepped back slightly. The woman looked irritated with him.

"So?"

"So... I need to talk to Yuki."

"You're talkin' to her. What do you _want_?"

"_You're_ Yuki?!"

"Excuse me?"

"...Never mind." Taichi turned and started back down the stairs. 'Serves him right for having such a girly name... but now how'm I gonna find him?!' Sitting at the bottom of the stairs, Taichi frowned. He had to find Yuki somehow... why hadn't he asked for an apartment number?! '...Because I didn't want to think Daisuke _knew_ his apartment number. That would mean they'd...' He groaned unhappily and buried his face in his hands. 'But I have to deal with that if I'm gonna get them back together, anyway... And I've gotta find him! That stupid asshole, hurting Daisuke like that... when I find him I'm gonna-'

"Taichi?"

Looking up quickly at the sound of his name, he saw Yuki peering down at him. "Yuki!"

"What are you doing here?"

"This." Taichi stood, brushed himself off, fisted his right hand, and punched Yuki square in the jaw. A satisfying noise of pain came from the pretty boy as he stumbled back and reached to his face, staring at Taichi in surprise.

"What was that for?!"

"For Daisuke."

"But..."

"You made him _cry _you _bastard_!"

Yuki frowned. "Yes, that often happens when you get rejected."

"You'd better give me a damn good reason for why you dumped him before I _really_ hurt you," Taichi practically growled, rolling up his sleeves.

"That's easy. Self preservation."

"....Excuse me?" Taichi relaxed slightly, not sure at all what the other boy meant by that.

"I know better than to get in between a lion and its prey," Yuki said, grinning.

"What the hell does that mean?!"

"That you like Daisuke, and Daisuke likes you, and I'm smart enough to stay out of the way." Pushing past Taichi, Yuki began walking up the stairs.

"Wha... oh no, you don't!" Taichi grabbed Yuki's arm hard and dug his fingers in. "Daisuke does _not_ like me. He might've used to... but he doesn't any more. He DOES like you, so go back to him!"

Yuki winced and tried to pull his arm away. "I'm sorry, Taichi, I don't want to hurt him. But it's not worth-"

"It's _Daisuke_, damnit! HE'S worth it!" Taichi released Yuki's arm and gave him an angry glare.

"Maybe to you. But I don't have the time to invest in someone who doesn't care about me first and foremost. I knew the minute he dropped me to take care of you that I was in second place." Yuki grinned. "He cares about you. You should be happy since you're in love with him."

Taichi felt himself flush, but he didn't deny it. "...You won't go back to him."

"No." Yuki walked quickly up the stairs, opened one of the doors and paused before entering. "Goodbye."

Taichi watched as Yuki closed the door behind him, and he stood there for a long moment, feeling baffled.  'He... he can't do that... he just _can't_!' "Yuki, you bastard! Get back out here!" Taichi ran up the stairs to Yuki's door and banged on it hard. "Open the door so I can kick your ass!"

"Is there a problem, sir?"

Turning, Taichi found himself face to face with a policeman. "Er... eheh... no! 'Course not!"

"I live down the hall... so if there's a problem I can come over and help you... right down to the police station. Understand?"

"...Yeah." Taichi sulked and made his way down the stairs again, through the lobby, to the outside of the building. He sighed and leaned against the brick wall, his arms folded. "Damnit."

"Having problems, Taichi?" Yamato asked as he walked towards his friend.

"Yamato... what're you doing here?"

"Daisuke called to tell me you might be about to do something illegal. He thought I could stop you." The blonde found a spot to lean against next to Taichi and grinned. "So what happened?"

"Yuki's an ass."

"So I heard."

"He won't listen to me. I fucking told him to go back to Daisuke, but he slammed the door in my face. And then that policeman-"

"A policeman? Wow, you really were about to get arrested!" Yamato laughed and patted Taichi's shoulder. "So, you wanna go get something to eat before you head back home?"

"...I'm not going home yet." Taichi straightened up and grinned slightly. "I've got something I have to do first."

"Taichi," Yamato began warningly. "You aren't going to-"

"No! I'm not going to do... whatever it is you think I'm going to do." He stuck his tongue out at his friend and began down the walk. "I'll call you later."

The walk to Daisuke's place took longer than it should have, and Taichi wondered if he was walking slow on purpose. He wasn't sure he wanted to get there, or what he'd say when he did. He'd have to do a number of things he didn't like doing. Pausing at the park near Daisuke's apartment building, Taichi remembered the soccer practices they'd had when they were both still kids.

One fall they'd made piles of leaves for makeshift goals. When Daisuke scored against Taichi for the first time in months, Taichi had tossed him into the leaves, and Daisuke yanked him down with him. They'd wrestled in the pile long enough to get filthy, and Taichi remembered the way his mother lectured him when he came home with mud on his clothes and leaves in his hair. He also remembered the way Daisuke had stared at him when they'd finally lost all their energy, and watched the sun set, laying on the pile and staring up at the sky, catching their breath.

Taichi's eyes had been fixed on the sky, but he knew now that Daisuke hadn't been watching the sun go down at all. He'd been watching him. 'Geez, I was oblivious,' he thought. 'Shoulda known something was up when I caught him staring at me...'

Suddenly breaking into a run, Taichi turned and made his way to Daisuke's apartment building as fast as he could. Panting, he made his way down the street, up the stairs, and down the hall, until he found himself at Daisuke's front door. He collapsed against it and panted, raising his fist to knock.

The door opened before he had a chance. "Taichi-senpai?" Daisuke blinked at him. "You okay?"

"Yeah... just... gimmie a second..." Taichi stumbled into the apartment and collapsed onto the couch. "Out... of breath..."

Shutting the door and pushing Taichi's shoes to the side, Daisuke followed him over and sat on the other end of the couch. "...You ran from Yuki?" He grinned mischievously.

"Hey!" Taichi sat up and glared at him. "For your information, I kicked his ass good!"

"...Really?" Daisuke paused, not sure he believed his senpai.

"Well... I did punch him... and yell at him. I yelled at him real good!" Taichi folded his arms and sighed heavily. "Woulda done more if he hadn't locked himself in his apartment. Coward."

Silence fell over the pair as Taichi finished catching his breath, and Daisuke watched him with a blank expression. Taichi scratched the back of his neck awkwardly when he began to sense the tension in the room.

"Hey, um... Daisuke? I don't think Yuki's gonna..."

"I know."

"I mean, he's not gonna come back."

"Yeah, I know." Daisuke shrugged. "It's okay."

"But it's not okay! He's a jerk. Shoulda punched him harder."

"It doesn't matter. We had nothing in common anyway. And he's not my type." Daisuke grinned slightly and sat back, trying to relax.

"Who is?" Waiting just long enough for that to sink in, Taichi slapped himself on the forehead. "I shouldn't ask. I'm not thinking..."

"...I'm not sure anymore." The smile on Daisuke's face faded slightly and he stared down at the carpet seriously.

Determined not to fail, Taichi blurted it out before he could stop himself. "I'm sorry!"

"For asking who my type is?" Daisuke gave him an odd look.

"No, for..." Taichi shook his head and took a deep breath. "I was an asshole. I... wasn't thinking about you at all... and I hurt you. And... I'm sorry." He gritted his teeth and forced a nervous smile.

The red head stared at him for a long moment before bursting into laughter.

"Hey... hey, what kinda reaction is that?!"

"You... you just look so funny!" Daisuke continued laughing. "Not too good at saying 'sorry', are you?"

"Well, damnit, I mean it, so gimmie a break! At least I said it..." Taichi looked away and glared at the other side of the room in irritation.

"...You mean it?" Daisuke moved closer to Taichi, sitting next to him now, and rested a hand on his knee. "Then... thanks."

 Taichi looked back and grinned at him. "What, aren't you going to say sorry, too?"

"I didn't do anything to apologize for!" Daisuke stuck out his tongue and pulled his hand away.

"Yeah, I guess you didn't."

"Taichi-senpai, I-"

"You'd better shut up now before I lose my nerve, okay? I have stuff I gotta say."

Daisuke nodded slightly, nervous about what Taichi was about to say.

"I'm sorry," he said more firmly this time. "I'm sorry for being an ass. And... I'm sorry for running off... and for screwing things up with Yuki, and-"

"But you didn't-"

"Lemme finish!" Taichi snapped, then took Daisuke's hand and placed it back on his knee. "And I'm sorry I couldn't get Yuki back... and... I know I really have no right to say this, but..." He grinned a crooked grin and squeezed Daisuke's hand. "I really do care about you."

Daisuke stared at him, unsure what to say. "Oh... I uh..."

"And I kinda..." he felt himself blush faintly and frowned, trying to will it away. "I'd like... to do the... the... y'know... couple........... thing," he finished, mumbling.

"The... couple... thing..." Daisuke's eyes widened.

"Y'know, the couple thing! Where you go to fancy restaurants... and see movies together and... y'know... make out in front of people to bother them!"

"...Oh, right... the couple thing..." Daisuke said softly.

"But."

"But?"

"But..." Taichi squeezed Daisuke's hand gently before letting go of it. "I really... wasn't thinking of you before. I was treating you like a kid... and... I think..." He glanced away, mumbling. "I hate doing shit like this... I think it'd be better for you if... I left."

"What'd you mean, if you _left_?"

"I missed a lot of class. I gotta go back for finals or I'm gonna have to take the whole term over..."

"Oh... then I guess you should go..."

"But Daisuke..." Taichi's voice softened and he reached over, brushing a strand of hair past Daisuke's ear. "If you need me... y'know. I'll be here. So... if any other jerks break you heart..."

Daisuke smiled and leaned into Taichi's touch. "I'll know who to call."

"Yeah." Taichi dropped his hand and the boys sat in silence for a moment, their eyes locked. "I... should go." Taichi began to stand, but he didn't get far before he was shoved back by the force of Daisuke's sudden hug.

"Thanks, Taichi-senpai," the younger boy whispered, his face inches from Taichi's ear.

Taichi wrapped his arms around him and hugged back, taking a deep breath and inhaling Daisuke's scent. He pressed his face into the reddish hair, wanting to remember how soft it was, and resisted the urge to slide a hand under Daisuke's shirt to feel his bare skin.

After a full minute, but what felt like only seconds to Taichi, Daisuke loosened his hold and sat back. He was smiling for real this time. "Good luck with your exams."

"Yeah, I'll need it." Standing for real this time, Taichi grinned. He turned and walked to the entrance and slipped on his shoes.

"You'll call and let me know how they go, right?" Daisuke asked softly.

Taichi paused with his hand on the doorknob. He didn't turn. "I'll call before then." His voice was rough.

He left before he heard Daisuke's reply, and he walked quickly to the train station. Only after arriving did he realize he'd left his bag with his clothes behind, probably at Daisuke's house, he thought. But he couldn't go back now. Instead, Taichi boarded the train that would take him back to college, and got all the way home before he realized that his fever had returned. Taking some medicine and tucking himself in, Taichi drifted to sleep and dreamt of a red headed boy and playing in the leaves.

End

Epilogue


	9. Epilogue

Epilogue

"Do you feel like dessert?" Yamato asked, setting the last dish from supper into the dishwasher.

"I'm pretty full," Ken mumbled, wrapping his arms around Yamato's waist from behind, and pressing his face into the blond hair. "But if you want something..."

Yamato smiled. "I'm fine." He sighed happily and stood there for a long moment, enjoying the feeling of his lover pressed against him. The apartment was quiet, and neither of them had to be anywhere the next day. This is what he'd missed while on tour, having quiet moments like this with someone he loved. He treasured the calm serenity-

A sharp ringing noise cut into Yamato's thoughts.

"The phone is ringing," Ken mumbled into Yamato's hair, not moving.

"Let it." The blond turned and smiled, pressing his forehead to Ken's. "We're going to spend the night together, just you and me... no one can interrupt that."

Ken's lips turned up in a small grin. "It could be an emergency."

"I don't care. Nothing could pull me away." Yamato ducked slightly and pressed his lips to Ken's, doing his best to ignore the repeated ringing of the phone. Instead he tried to concentrate on how gentle Ken's kisses were, and how it felt to have the younger boy's tongue slip between his lips and-

The answering machine beeped and Taichi's voice could be heard coming from the speaker. "Yamato! Yamato, I know you're there! Look, I'm in PAIN, here! I know you don't have a JOB so it's not like you're busy or anything... pick up the phone, damnit!"

"I'm not answering," Yamato mumbled into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Ken's waist.

"C'mon, Yama," Taichi whined. "Haven't I always been there for you? Even back when we were kids and everyone was teasing you... I stood up for you and got detention 'cause of it, remember? I thought you were my _best friend_!"

Yamato simply moaned unhappily. "Not _again_. Doesn't he have anyone else to whine at? This is the third time this week."

"Go on, answer the phone," Ken said, tugging away and grinning. "Or he'll never leave us alone."

Casting Ken a guilty look, Yamato retrieved the phone and gritted his teeth before speaking. "This had _better_ be important, Yagami, or-"

"I miss him," Taichi's voice said softly.

"...Excuse me?" The blond frowned and sat down at the table.

"Daisuke. I miss him."

Yamato rolled his eyes. "Stop pouting."

"I'm not! I don't pout!"

"You are so."

"....Damnit, I am."

Ken sat across from Yamato and sipped his leftover tea from dinner, watching the blond curiously.

"If you miss him so much, do something about it." Yamato crossed his legs and leaned back in the chair.

"But I can't! I did the right thing, so I have to KEEP doing the right thing... right? Or wrong... damnit, I don't know!"

"Taichi, calm down. You're being pathetic."

"Yeah, I know, so fix it! ...I wish you were here to punch some sense into me."

Yamato grinned. "Well, find someone else to punch you. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find someone willing."

"No. No one else punches me like you."

Yamato shook his head. "If you care so much about him, then you should-"

Taichi's voice was suddenly much more serious. "I care about him that much, that's why I left."

Yamato's annoyance faded and his voice softened. "Then you need to move on. Go to a club, hang out with your friends. ...Do you want me to come visit you this weekend? We're not doing anything..."

"No, you're busy with your little _Ken-chaaaaan_," Taichi said in a squeaky voice. "Wouldn't wanna interrupt the love birds."

"For your information, my little Ken-chan can come along."

Ken wrinkled his nose and blushed faintly, mouthing at him 'What's wrong?'

Yamato held a hand over the receiver and whispered, "He misses Daisuke."

"...Good," Ken said, smirking.

Giving him a sharp look, Yamato held the phone back up to his ear only to catch the end of some long tirade of Taichi's.

"-screw everything up but I miss him and I feel like a jerk 'cause I wanna go back even though I did the right thing and DAMNIT why did I do the right thing in the first place?! I don't do the right thing! I do the stupid thing! Why didn't you tell me to do the stupid thing?!"

"You didn't consult me," Yamato mumbled, rolling his eyes.

Ken glanced up and whispered to Yamato, "Did you hear a knock on the door?"

Yamato shrugged. "I can't hear anything over him."

"What was that?" Taichi asked, still sounding mournful.

"Nothing, Taichi." He turned to Ken. "Go on and check the door, I'll be right there." Watching his boyfriend walk out of the room, Yamato sighed. "Taichi, you've ruined my nice quiet evening. What do you want me to do?"

"...Make me not stupid."

"If I could do that I would have a long time ago," Yamato snapped, then he sighed. "But if you weren't stupid you wouldn't be Taichi, and that's why we love you. Now have a beer, go to bed, and try to relax. I'll call you back tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay," Taichi mumbled. "Thanks, Yama."

"Any time, Taichi, any time." Yamato stood and hung up the phone. He felt bad. Taichi had never dealt with heartbreak before, not on this level, and Yamato wasn't sure how much of this his friend could take. 'I'll visit this weekend and we can go to a club or... something,' Yamato thought, walking into the living room. 'I can cheer him up and-' His thoughts stopped midstream when he saw who was standing in their living room.

"Hi, Yamato-san," Daisuke said, smiling nervously. "I uh... wanted to ask a favor."

Ken was sitting on the couch with a concerned expression on his face. "What's wrong, Daisuke?"

"Well, y'know. Taichi-senpai left this at my place," Daisuke said, indicating the bag he held in his left hand. "Maybe you could take it to him, Yamato-san?"

"I'm sure he could-"

"Sorry, I'm really busy." Yamato sat next to Ken and elbowed him, hoping Daisuke wouldn't notice. "We're both _very_ busy."

Giving them an odd look, Daisuke sat on the edge of the coffee table. "Oh... but... don't you think he needs this stuff?"Yamato winced. He hated it when people sat on his furniture like that. "Probably..."

"If his school books are in there-" Ken began.

"Nah, just some clothes. Couple of shirts, some pants... dirty socks," Daisuke said, patting the satchel.

"No underwear? Typical," Yamato mumbled, sitting back.

"Er........ yeah." Daisuke shifted uncomfortably and averted his gaze.

"What was that?" Ken leaned forward and gave Daisuke a smirk.

"...So you guys can't bring it to him?" the redhead asked, pouting.

"You're bad at changing the subject," Ken teased. "But-"

"We can't." Yamato said again, cutting Ken off. "We're _really_ busy, Daisuke. Sorry. Can't you take it to him?"

"Well yeah... I guess I can, but..."

"Great! I'm sure he'd be glad to see you," Yamato said, smiling.

"...Yeah." Daisuke looked down at the bag and sighed, frowning.

"You could mail it to him," Ken said helpfully.

"But that would cost a lot!" Yamato interjected. "It's cheaper to just take it to him."

"And I don't have much money..." Daisuke shrugged. "Thanks, guys. I guess... I'll take it to him." He stood and shouldered the bag again, turning to leave.

Ken gave Yamato a dirty look and whispered, "It wouldn't cost that much, and we're not that busy-"

"Sorry, Daisuke... we'll see you later. Give Taichi our love!" Yamato said in a cheerful tone of voice, ignoring Ken.

Daisuke walked out of the apartment looking dejected.

"What are you up to?" Ken asked, folding his arms.

"It'll be good for them to see each other," Yamato said, smiling sweetly at his boyfriend.

"You're setting Daisuke up for a lot more pain. He's just starting to get over it and-"

Yamato cut him off with a kiss. "-and if that's true seeing Taichi won't bother him. But if it's not, they'll get together. Either way, it'll work out fine."

"I don't know..."

"Believe me, it's best this way. Now, didn't we have plans for tonight?" Yamato's eyes sparkled mischeviously.

"I think there might have been something..." Ken murmured, deciding to forget his concern for the moment, and instead lead his lover to their bedroom.

"Shit, shit, shit! How the hell did I sleep in so late?!" Taichi grumbled to himself as he looked through his dresser for clean clothes. "Stupid finals, stupid alarm clock not being set, stupid everything! Any minute now the guys are gonna come bitch at me for missing lunch with 'em... crap, I hope the professor doesn't fail me out for being late!" While Taichi hopped on one leg to pull on his pants, there was a knock on the door. "Yeah, c'mon in." 'That's gonna be them, no doubt... damnit!'

The door hesitantly opened, and Taichi looked up, one leg in his pants and one out. "Well, you coming in or-"

Daisuke simply stared. "...Um. Hi..." Taichi seemed to have forgotten to put on underwear.

Losing his balance, Taichi tripped backwards onto the bed, grabbing the curtains and yanking them off the window as he fell.

"Are you okay?!" Daisuke dropped Taichi's bag in the doorway and ran over, a concerned look on his face.

"Yeah, I'm okay... I just..." Taichi felt his voice fade. Daisuke was standing over him. Daisuke's burgundy eyes were looking down at him. Daisuke's face was inches from his own... "What are you doing here?" he finally managed.

"I just brought your bag, that's all," Daisuke said quickly, stepping back and averting his gaze to where the bag lay in the doorway. "Sorry, I'll just go if you're busy." He turned and began to leave. He didn't get far.

'He's leaving...' "No!" Taichi panicked. He jumped up and grabbed for Daisuke, wrapping his arms around the boy from behind and pulling him close. "I'm not busy."

Daisuke blushed, feeling a familiar shudder go down his spine. "Taichi-senpai..."

'Shit... I shouldn't have done that. Should let him go... but... he smells so good...' Taichi's eyes slid shut and he smiled slightly, the aching he'd been feeling for the last week fading. "Not busy at all."

Sighing and relaxing back into Taichi's arms, Daisuke smiled. 'Maybe he missed me after all...'

"Hey, Taichi... don't you have a final right now?"

Taichi looked up to see his neighbor standing in the hall. "Shit! I forgot!" Letting go of Daisuke abruptly, Taichi finished pulling his pants on and began searching for a clean shirt.

"I don't think the professor'll think getting laid is a very good excuse for missing the finals," the boy said, smirking.

"We weren't..." Daisuke mumbled, blushing again. He scowled at the ground and felt his stomach tense. 'What am I _doing_ here?!'

Grabbing his book bag and jamming his feet into his shoes quickly, Taichi paused before stepping out the door. 'I can't just leave! Daisuke is here... _Daisuke_. He came to see _me_! But... the exam.... shit!' "Daisuke... can you wait?"

"Huh?" The red head looked up and blinked at Taichi in confusion. "Wait?"

"I have to take this test but... after!" Taichi looked at his watch. "Two hours! Two hours and I'll be back! We can catch dinner, okay?" His voice was desperate.

'I should leave. What am I going to do, sit in his room all day and wait for him?' "...Sure," Daisuke said, grinning. 'Oh well.' "But you have to pay."

Taichi felt himself really smile for the first time in a week. "Yeah." He stood there smiling for a long moment, staring at Daisuke happily.

"Taichi?" the other boy asked. "You going or what?"

"Crap! Daisuke... don't go anywhere! Just... just wait here!" Taichi stumbled out the door and ran down the hall, racing to his class, wondering if he had any chance of passing the test knowing Daisuke was in his bedroom.

Wondering briefly if the professor would be able to read his handwriting at all, Taichi jumped up and tripped over his bookbag before stumbling to the front of the classroom. Ignoring the chuckles of his classmates, he slammed the sloppily written essay onto the teacher's desk, panting slightly.

"...Yes, Yagami-kun?"

"I'm done. I have to go. Now."

"You've already missed too many classes, Yagami-kun, I expect you to wait for the others to finish before you leave." He peered down at the paper and frowned. "Are you _sure_ you're done?"

Taichi hesitated. He didn't want to fail, but... 'Daisuke...' "Yeah, it's perfect, just lemme go, _please_!"

"You realize if this essay isn't perfect you'll have to retake my class?" The professor looked up at Taichi through his glasses and smirked.

'Retake... agh! I hate this stupid class... but... Daisuke... in my room...' "Yeah, it'll be perfect! I'm sure!" Turning, Taichi shouldered his bag and ran out of the class, already forgetting about the possibility of failing a class. Running down the hall and out onto the campus, Taichi only paused when he tripped over a girl sunning herself on the school lawn.

"Hey!" The girl squeaked, sitting up and adjusting her bikini. "Watch where you're going!"

"Whatever," Taichi grumbled, gathering himself up and starting back off across the campus. Passing the cafeteria and ignoring the smell of pizza wafting from the door, crossing the street and almost getting hit by a car, Taichi ran as fast as he could. Five minutes later he arrived at his apartment.

Panting, he stood outside his door and tried to compose himself. Running a hand through his hair and brushing the grass off his knees, he finally caught his breath and opened the door. "Daisuke I-" Taichi stopped mid-step.

Daisuke was curled up on Taichi's bed. The covers up to his waist, one leg hanging off the side of the bed, he was fast asleep.

'I should unpack this, I guess... let him sleep.' Taichi closed the door and knelt down next to the bag, pulling out his clothes and tossing them in the vague direction of the clothes basket. 'Shirts, check... pants, check... underwear...' Taichi paused. 'Waitaminute... where the hell... I thought I put it in here!' Looking up at Daisuke, Taichi frowned suspiciously. 'Did I leave it there or did he...' He shook his head and grinned. 'Nahhh. I musta just forgotten it or _some_thing. But... he sure is... cute like that...'

Approaching the bed carefully, Taichi knelt next to it and stared quietly at Daisuke's face. The redhead's bangs were getting long, Taichi noted, and brushed them away from the boy's eyes. His nose wrinkled in response and he parted his lips, sighing contentedly. Considering how energetic he was when awake, the younger boy seemed awfully peaceful as he slept, Taichi thought, stroking Daisuke's cheek gently with a finger.

"Mmm?" Daisuke mumbled, rolling over and cuddling up to a pillow.

Taichi grinned and considered waking him up, but decided against it. 'He's too cute to bother, I'll just tuck him in and-' he paused, noticing a bulge in the boy's back pocket. Daisuke was wearing baggy cargo pants, but there was clearly something there. 'What's...' Carefully unbuttoning the flap and reaching into the pocket, Taichi pulled the item out and sat there, staring at it, feeling stunned.

'My goggles. Why's he got these with him? I thought he woulda thrown them out a long time ago...' He smiled and traced his thumb across the lenses, remembering when he'd handed them over to the smaller boy. 'He looked better in them than I did, anyway,' Taichi thought, resting his head on the mattress and yawning. 'Maybe I need a little nap, too.' With the goggles in one hand, Taichi drifted off to sleep.

"Taichi-senpai?" Daisuke's voice asked softly.

Taichi grinned. "Daisuke," he whispered, reaching towards the noise.

"Agh!" Daisuke yelped as Taichi yanked him off of the bed and into his lap.

"Huh?" Taichi's eyes fluttered open, only to see the object of his dream sprawled across his legs. "...Daisuke?"

"You were asleep," Daisuke said, sitting up and blushing faintly.

"Oh... right." Taichi frowned, almost wishing he'd been allowed to finish his dream. It'd been a particularly nice one, and...

"Er, Taichi-senpai?" Daisuke asked, averting his eyes. "You uh..."

"What?" Taichi blinked hard, still waking up, and glanced down at his lap to where the goggles lay. "Oh, sorry... they uh... fell out of your pocket, and... why'd you have them, anyway? Do you... keep them with you, or..."

Blushing slightly, Daisuke shrugged. "Sometimes. But that's not what I meant. I meant _that_." The younger boy pointed to Taichi's lap, a small grin on his face. "Sweet dreams?"

Finally noticing the large bulge in his pants, Taichi scowled. "Well... yes! And you interrupted them!"

Bursting into laughter, Daisuke leaned back against the bed. "Gee, sorry, next time I'll let you sleep. But you were making pretty funny noises..."

"I'll show you funny noises!" Taichi growled and pounced on Daisuke, pinning him to the ground and tickling his ribs.

"Aaah! No!" Daisuke giggled and tried to swat Taichi's hands away. "Stop! No more!"

"What's the magic word?" Taichi asked, reaching under Daisuke's shirt for more efficient tickling.

"Please! Please stop!!" Daisuke gasped, giggling loudly.

"...Close enough." Grinning, Taichi stopped and rested his hands on either side of Daisuke's chest, staring down at the boy. 'He looks really cute when he's all flushed...'

"Taichi-senpai? You're squishing me." Daisuke shoved at Taichi's chest, still panting from the previous attack.

Catching the boy's wrists in his hands, Taichi ducked down and pressed his lips to Daisuke's, his eyes shut tightly, holding his breath.

Moments passed, and still Daisuke didn't respond. He didn't move, he didn't kiss back, and he didn't pull away. Finally, feeling rejection set in, Taichi sat up and averted his eyes. "Sorry. I uh-"

"Taichi-"

"Lemme finish, okay? Or I won't be able to say this." Taichi scooted back off of the smaller boy and sighed, staring across the room and avoiding eye contact with his friend. "I've missed you. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being a dick, and I'm sorry for ruining everything, and... I'm sorry for not realizing a long time ago... how much I cared about you."

"Taichi-senpai, I-"

"Damnit, lemme finish!" Taichi turned and glared at Daisuke, taking a deep breath. "I've missed you. I've missed you so much that you're all I dream about. And I know I don't deserve you, and I know that I did the right thing before when I let you go, but... I can't just leave it like that. I fucking fell in love with you, and if I don't take this chance to tell you that, I might never get to again, so..." Taichi swallowed hard and his expression softened. "I know you can't say it back, not after how I acted, but... I love you."

Stunned, Daisuke felt his mouth go dry. "...Can... I say something now?"

"Yeah, go ahead," Taichi grinned sheepishly.

"I... I mean... you're so stupid!" And with that, Daisuke pounced onto Taichi, shoving him to the floor, and kissed him so hard Taichi felt the breath go out of him and dizziness set in. But he didn't care. Daisuke's lips were against his own, and Daisuke's body was pressed tightly to his, and Daisuke was kissing him.

Finally breaking the kiss, the smaller boy sat up only inches, and stared down at Taichi.

"So does that mean-"

Before Taichi could continue, Daisuke's lips were already against his again, and Taichi couldn't help but grin into the kiss. Wrapping his arms around the smaller boy, Taichi rolled them over so that he was on top of Daisuke, and parted his lips, pressing his tongue against the other boy's mouth.

Daisuke responded quickly, then shoved Taichi back only to tug the older boy's shirt off and yank him back down into a hungry kiss.

Next to the boys were the goggles, but they were shoved out of the way quickly, along with various articles of clothing. Outside, the sun was beginning to set, and people were getting home from work. The neighbors arrived home early and turned up their television set a bit louder than usual, to block the interesting noises coming from Taichi's apartment.

As the room began to dim from the twilight outside, Taichi found himself pressed deep into Daisuke, the smaller boy's fingers clenched into his back, leaving small bruises, and his eyes half shut in a look that sent shivers down Taichi's spine. Unable to look away from Daisuke's face, Taichi felt more than saw as Daisuke's back arched and he pulled Taichi down to press against him. The boy moaned something that sounded like Taichi's name, and bit into his shoulder. Ignoring the sting of the scratches and bites Daisuke had left, Taichi soon followed, pressing a firm kiss to the smaller boy's swollen lips, hearing a moan and not sure who's it was, as he thrust deeply into Daisuke and shuddered.

The sun had set and the streetlights weren't on yet. The room was dark and hot and humid, and smelled of sex. Daisuke glanced over and vaguely wished they'd moved to the bed. His back was rug burned.

A hand slid up his chest, up his neck, to his cheek, and tilted his head over. Taichi smiled at him and ran the hand through Daisuke's hair. "You still think I'm stupid?" he asked quietly, not wanting to break the spell that had set over the room.

"Maybe," Daisuke whispered back, rolling onto his side to face Taichi. "But I've known that a long time."

"I meant it, y'know," Taichi said, far too lost in the afterglow to be concerned about embarrassment over his feelings. "I really do love you."

Daisuke felt his face flush again, and he smiled. "Never thought I'd hear you say that."

"Well you are." Taichi paused and leaned in to kiss Daisuke gently. "Tired?"

"Mmm..." Daisuke nodded and sat up. "The bed is a better place for sleeping."

Taichi ran a hand down Daisuke's back and winced. "A better place for sex, too... sorry."

"I'm fine. You're no better off," Daisuke grinned mischieviously and ran a hand over the bite mark on Taichi's shoulder.

Chuckling, Taichi scooped Daisuke up and stood, wobbling momentarily as the smaller boy clung to him tightly, and dropped them both onto the bed.

"Wha-what was that for?!" Daisuke asked, panting in surprise.

"You said you were tired," Taichi said, pulling the blanket up over them, and shoving the broken curtain rod off onto the floor.

"Oh, yeah," Daisuke said, yawning. "I guess... I can stay... for the night."

"You can stay longer than that." Taichi's tone of voice was serious.

Daisuke smiled faintly. "I have to go back... next week is the last week of high school, and-"

"And then you're free," Taichi said, grinning. "How do you feel about going to college with me?"

"I don't think I can afford it..." Daisuke said, looking away. He didn't want to admit that he'd already applied and been accepted to another college nearby, close enough to take the train to from Taichi's apartment. He didn't want to admit that he'd been hoping...

"You can if you live with me."

"Huh?" The boy's voice cracked slightly in surprise and he blushed.

Taichi laughed and lay down, pulling Daisuke close, and wrapped his arms around him, forcing him to rest his head on his shoulder. "You heard me. I don't want to let you go again."

"Taichi..."

Reluctantly, the older boy loosened his grip. "But... I have to, don't I?" He smiled slightly and shrugged.

"...You want me to stay with you? Here?" Daisuke only clung tighter to the older boy, not pulling away despite his ability to.

"Yeah." Taichi tightened his grip again and inhaled deeply. Daisuke smelled good...

"...Okay."

Feeling his heartbeat speed up, Taichi's eyes went wide. "Huh?"

Daisuke laughed. "I already said that..."

"Well, I can say it, too! Huh?!" Taichi smiled and tickled Daisuke under the arms.

"Agh! No! Stop it!" Grabbing Taichi's wrists, Daisuke sat up and straddled the older boy's waist and smiled down at him. "No more tickling or I'm not gonna say it."

"Say what?" Taichi asked, but immediately stilled.

"...That I love you, too. But you should already know that."

"Yeah?" Taichi felt himself smile so widely his face ached. "Well like you said... I'm stupid."

"Guess so," Daisuke nodded. "But I love you anyway."

"I love you, too, Daisuke," Taichi said, feeling his throat tighten.

There was a long silence as the two boys stared at each other, then Taichi laughed.

"Okay, enough of that romantic crap, c'mere." He yanked Daisuke down onto the bed next to him, and squeezed him tightly in a bear hug.

"Agh! No!" Daisuke wriggled and reached down to pinch Taichi's ass hard.

"Ow!" Taichi let go and fell out of the bed in surprise.

Laughing, Daisuke rolled over and pulled the blanket up to his shoulder. "I'm going to sleep now."

Taichi smiled and climbed into the bed, slipped under the covers, and lay snug to Daisuke's back, wrapping an arm around him. "Good night, Daisuke."

"Good night, Taichi-senpai."


End file.
